The Search
by TwinkleStaar
Summary: Set about 1 year after Sozin's Comet. What happened to Ursa? Zuko is going to solve this big mystery but he needs help from someone - his insane sister Azula. Will she find a way out of her madness? And is she going to get along with Zuko and the rest of the Gaang? But there's no time for happy family reunions. Ozai wants revenge and Ozai always gets what he wants. Rated T
1. Prologue

Hey there! This is my first fanfic and it's about Zuko and Azula's search for their mother. The plot is very different from the graphic novels "The Search" (I was just too lazy to come up with a better title ;P).

Also, I am NOT a native speaker. So please don't kill me, if there are any mistakes :D (I'm practicing for an english exam ;) )

**D****isclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters :( I only own the idea of this story.**

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_**NOTE 17.06.13: **Sorry that writing chapter 12 is taking so long . I am under major stress at the moment. School year ends in 2 months and I'm having my final exams. I promise I'll get back to this story after the exams are over. _

**Icesong180 edited this chapter :)**

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**The Search**

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Prologue

"Your breakfast is here, prisoner." The guard said when he entered the cell. The room was dark and there was an eye-stinging smell in the air. The prisoner sat behind bars on a simple mattress with his back leaning against the wall. He held his head down, but as the guard stepped a few steps closer, the prisoner suddenly looked up to him, his golden eyes piercing into the guard's brown ones.

For a few seconds the guardsman looked shocked, but then he regained his strength.

"I'm not afraid of you, Fire Lord. Or should I say Loser Lord!" The guard giggled about his own 'joke' and then he stretched his arm through the provided gap between the bars and put the bowl on the floor, so that the prisoner was able to eat it. Ozai didn't deign to look at the bowl with the disgusting 'food' in it.

"You should get used to it, _former_ Fire Lord. This will be your fine dish for the rest of your pathetic life." The guardsman turned to leave, but Ozai coughed loudly and said with a hoarse voice:

"You dare to talk like this to the Phoenix King?"

"You're no King anymore. The Avatar took your bending. You're weak now … and pathetic. You've lost everything! Your throne, your bending, your pride and your greatest weapon."

The former Fire Lord scowled at the guard. If he would ever get out of here, he would make this guard pay for this insolence. But right now he was powerless.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about you fool."

"Fire Lord Zuko defeated that insane little brat of yours and locked her away in a mental hospital. She'll never get out of there to come to your rescue. Just sayin'."

Azula was a failure. She hadn't even been capable of defeating her disgraceful brother. Such a fool.

"I don't need a weakling like her. Now, get out of my sight!"

The guard turned around and left the room.

Ozai knew that the peasant had been right. He was powerless and rotting in a cell, while Zuko was sitting on Ozai's throne, leading Ozai's nation! His dear son had visited him right after he was crowned the new Fire Lord. Ozai laughed when he remembered the question Zuko had asked.

"_Where is my mother?"_

Such an idiot. Ozai loved all the visits of his son. He then knew that he still had some power over him. He even had been able to manipulate Zuko to bring some tea the next time he visited. Zuko did what he was told in believe that he would be able to coax some information out of Ozai. But Zuko had been wrong. As always. Fool. And let not forget his prodigious daughter who sits in an asylum right now. Lovely. And then his brother, the tea freak, had reconquered Ba Sing Sae in the name of the Earth King. Fools! Fools everywhere!

Ozai growled angrily. If he hadn't lost his firebending powers, he would've been able to break out of this damned prison and then he would've hunt them all down and tought them a lesson. It can't be that he'd lost his power! That couldn't have happened to him! Not to Ozai. Not to the Phoenix King!

He got onto his feet and then directly into a fighting stance. He clenched his fists and then punched into the air with full force. A huge flame was supposed to be generated, but as things were, nothing happened.

Anger surged within him. He felt it rise but then he calmed down.

_If I don't have power over anyone anymore, I should at least be able to control myself._

Ozai sighed. He was also a failure. The family of losers was now complete.

"Without my bending I'm no-"

"**Fire Lord Ozai."** A soft voice interrupted him in his soliloquy. It came from everywhere in the room and it didn't sound human. It didn't seem to belong to any living creature on this planet. He couldn't classify it and it made him feel cold.

_Am I going insane now?_

"**No, you're not … let me explain it to you." **Not waiting for an answer, the voice continued its speech.

"**I'm a part of you. I'm everything you want. I am the energy of your firebending. You****r**** power."**

The former Fire Lord's eyes widened as the voice, that had to come from his head, mentioned his bending.

"I'm not a fool to believe a strange voice that comes from my head," he said out loud.

"**Do you have a choice?"**

He was going crazy, wasn't he? He was imagining all of this bullshit. From everything he wanted now, it was his firebending he craved the most. And this craving was driving him insane and making him hallucinate about voices in his head?!

As Ozai did not answer, the voice continued.

"**All you want is revenge, don't you? And I can help you with that. I can restore your bending."**

OK, that was going to far. Something inside Ozai wanted to believe this voice and the other part struggled hard against this.

_You__'ve got__ to have control over yourself!_

"Who the hell are you?" Ozai growled through clenched teethes.

"**I already told you."**

"No, you didn't! You -"

"**Shush, my Phoenix King and hear what I have to tell you."**

Ozai stopped talking and listened to the seductive voice.

"**The Avatar used my technique to take your bending. Now you are connected to me and that's why I can get inside your head and talk to you. But that doesn't matter right now. What's important now is, that you need to meet a man called Darzon. He is in the possession of a rare artifact that belongs to me. Once you have it, you'll be able to firebend again."**

"I am in prison. That means I need someone to bring it to me." The former Fire Lord whispered quietly. He didn't want to arouse attraction.

"**That is right. Someone who's able to visit you and who would help you. Your daughter. Princess Azula of the Fire Nation."**

"She is insane and rotting in a mental hospital. She's useless."

"**But you'll need her … believe me. She's a firebending prodigy after all. And she's loyal to you."**

"Didn't you listen to me? I said she is _locked away. _She can't visit me." Ozai hissed, annoyed.

"**That's why we also need the Fire Lord. Your son, Zuko."**

"Oh, I understand. You want him to free Azula and let her visit me."

"**That is exactly what I want you to do, Phoenix King."**

"And I already know how I'm going to do that," Ozai laughed at the thought. "Yes, I think I'm going to ask my dear son for a favor the next time he visits me. I bet he can't wait to find out what really happened to his mother."

"**Well then, Phoenix King, I'll contact you soon."**

"You better not be lying." Ozai threatened the voice.

But it was already gone and Ozai was now alone in his cell.

He sat down on the mattress and leaned back against the cold stone wall.

Former Fire Lord Ozai smiled.

_I am going to get out of here and then I'll make them all pay!_

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**So, hopefully there weren't too many grammatic and vocab mistakes!  
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**Hope you liked it and see you soon for the next update! ;)  
**

_Please leave a review :)  
_


	2. Chapter 1: The Return

**Hey there! Here's the first chapter! **

**Enjoy! :)  
**

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**Chapter 1**

The airship of the Fire Lord landed on a small island. It had taken Zuko a whole day to come here and he hoped that it wasn't a mistake. He was pretty nervous about the meeting he was going to have. The meeting with his sister. The sister that had taken every chance to make his life hard. He sighed. He was definitely not looking forward to it. He needed her to find mother. A lot of stuff had happened in a year and very often he had to prove that he was the new and strong Fire Lord. The Fire Lord, who could surmount many difficulties. And now it was time to find his mother. He just had to solve the mystery about her fate and Azula was the key. He had tried to get the information of his mother's current location from Ozai … or well, at least where she went after she got banished. But he had refused to tell him anything. He knew Ozai hated him and now he could'nt understand why he'd been such a fool to believe that the former Fire Lord would have told him anything! So he figured out that the only person his father trusted enough to give away some information was his crazy little sister, who had been locked away in the best asylum of the Fire Nation for a little more than a year now. Zuko sighed again as he walked toward the gray building.

"Is everything alright my lord?" A guard asked him.

"Yes, everything's fine. You'll wait here for me to come back. I'm going in there alone."

"As you wish, my lord."

The soldier said as he took his position in front of the entrance. Zuko knocked on the door and a young woman opened it and bowed her head respectfully.

"It is an honor to have you visiting us my lord. Now would you please follow me inside."

She waved at Zuko and directed him through the asylum. The walls were white and the corridors were long and looked all the same. It was like walking through a maze. He remembered the last and only time he'd visited his younger sister right after she got put in here. She had screamed at him and tried to strike him and so he thought it would be the best for him and for her not to see each other for a while.

A year later he found himself walking through the hallway of the best mental hospital in the Fire Nation. Was he doing the right thing? How would she react? Was she still mentally sick? He shook his head in dejection. How could that have happened to her? To the girl that had always been in control over herself and everyone else around her!

Finally the nurse led him into a green room with a big mirror and a great window. From the great window, he could see some patients in roll chairs being wheeled around in the courtyard. The woman then gestured Zuko to sit down on a chair in front of the window.

"The princess is getting prepared for her meeting. Doctor Kuay will be here in a minute." Once again, she bowed her head and left the room.

Zuko was nervous. How was he going to start talking to her? How would she react if he told her he needed her to find mother?

The door opened and an old man – Doctor Kuay – came in. He wore glasses and a gray robe and nodded respectfully to the Fire Lord.

"Fire Lord Zuko," he greeted him, "I hope you had a comfortable travel."

"Thank you Doctor Kuay. As you know, I'm here to speak to my sister. I haven't been here in a while, so I'm not up to date anymore …"

He couldn't finish the sentence. Guilt overwhelmed him when he remembered that he'd only visited her once. There wasn't much spare time because of all his duties as the new Fire Lord. He bit his lip when he remembered how often he had visited Ozai.

"Yes, uh, I think we made a little process by now." Zuko immediately forgot his guilt.

"Really? How is she? I want to see her now."

"Well, um, she's still far away from recovering." The doctor added and Zuko's hope vanished.

"What do you mean with far away from recovering?"

"Her mental state is still unstable. She started eating again since she tried to starve herself and she doesn't scream that much anymore. Especially at night. But she still doesn't sleep well. Sometimes she's crying through the whole night or just staring into nowhere."

Zuko frowned. "So where's the little process you were talking about?"

The doctor was caught by surprise. "I just told you my lord."

"That's all? Nothing else? That's all you achieved in a year of work?"

"Well she stopped attacking our healers and actually started talking … but only, uh, to her hallucinations."

Zuko wasn't sure about how to react. He knew that it wasn't going to be easy to help Azula recovering, but he couldn't believe that they hadn't made much progress! Well, actually they'd made none at all!

"Do you think that's progress, Doctor Kuay?!" Zuko asked angrily. "You think it's progress that my sister stopped screaming after a _whole year_? And that she started talking to _hallucinations?!_"

Fear crossed the doctor's face and he immediately bowed in front of the furious Fire Lord.

"We are terribly sorry, please forgive us. The princess doesn't want to co-operate with us! We're trying our best!"

Zuko knew that it wasn't the doctor's fault. That was typical Azula. Make other's lives as hard as possible. It was her own fault.

"Apology accepted. Now please bring my sister in here."

Doctor Kuay rose to his feet, called out loudly and the door opened again and two caretakers wheeled a person in a strait jacket into the room. Her face was hidden behind long black hair. Zuko stiffened. This girl couldn't be his sister, could she? She looked so small and fragile. And defeated. But it had been a whole year! She should have gotten much better! But then he remembered the doctor's words and his face hardened.

He would not feel sympathy for his sister, when she tried everything to stay like that.

_I will not show weakness!_

The girl – his sister – looked up and her golden, bloodshot eyes stared into his own pair of golden eyes. He could see the madness in them. She didn't move or say anything, she just stared. Her skin was paler than ever and she was emaciated. A cold shiver ran down his back and it took him a while to find words.

"Azula … I – I um … it's good to see you, uh, again." He stammered.

She just kept looking at him with cold eyes. He closed his eyes and breathed out loudly, gathering all his courage and started speaking again.

"I know this is risky, but I'm going to tell you the truth … I feel disconnected from the good in my own family … and in my own nation. For a whole host of reasons, I believe finding my mother would help me reconnect."

He paused and tried to read the expression on his sister's face. But Azula remained neutral and just looked at him without any interest.

_I wonder if she's even listening to me. Maybe she doesn't want me to find mother._

"I've had conversation after conversation with Ozai and it's gone nowhere. He refuses to reveal what happened to her." He snorted angrily at the thought.

"So I've come to an uncomfortable conclusion. _You _are the only person in the world who can coax the information I need out of Ozai." He paused for a second.

"Tell me then, what do you want in return for helping me find mother?"

He didn't really expect her to answer him, but she surprised him by grinning at him.

"Don't be silly Zu-Zu!" He grimaced at the mention of his lovely nickname.

"The satisfaction of serving the Fire Lord in some small way will be compensation enough!"

Her voice was high and hoarse and he knew that she didn't really know what she was talking about. She was insane. He felt his heart sink and cursed himself for not visiting her any sooner. She could have gotten much better if there would have been _someone_ who cared about her. His face softened.

"Azula you -"

"Besides, not a day has gone by since you put me in here that I haven't wondered –"

She stopped for a moment and stared into the mirror next to her. It looked like she was looking at someone in the mirror besides herself. She then shuddered and started talking again.

"– What exactly happened to our dear mother?"

**OoOoO**

Relieve welled through Zuko as he entered the airship. He wanted to be gone from this island as fast as possible. Azula had willed in to get the information about their mother and his plan was working perfectly. Azula was going to be sent to the palace in three days, so that there was enough time for Zuko to prepare everything for her arrival. Was he doing the right thing? He let his insane sister, who had tried to kill him more than once, near him. And he wanted to let her talk to Ozai!

_I hope that I'm doing the right thing._

He dismissed the soldiers who guarded him and walked to his cabin. He needed some time for himself. He laid down on the bed, staring up to the metallic ceiling.

The girl he talked to was nothing like Azula. She was sick and needed aid. He couldn't help it but feel sorry and guilty for what had happened to her. Deep down in his heart, he knew he really cared for her. She was his sister after all!

_How did she fall that far? It wasn't Azula I've talked to. This girl was even more scary than the evil Azula!_

He somehow thought he prefered the cruel Fire Nation Princess more than the lunatic girl in the strait jacket.

_Geez, what happened to my sister?_

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_3 days later in the palace …_

"Zuko, is everything alright?" Mai said as she gently placed Zuko's face in her hands and looked at him with a worried expression on her face.

"You look so – "

"Everything is fine, Mai! No need to worry about me!" Zuko yelled as he walked down the hallway, leaving Mai behind alone.

_Nothing's wrong with me! Everyone keeps worrying about me! They don't see that I can handle this all alone!_

It was early in the morning, but his sister was about to arrive in an hour or so and he was getting more tense with every minute that passed. But why?

All arrangements were done. He was ready for her. He'd let her room be prepared for her. He couldn't keep her in a cell, could he?

She was still his baby sister and so he came to the conclusion to give her a second chance.

It hadn't been all her fault that she became like Ozai. Ozai had made her so. It was her father's fault. It was _their _father's fault. Zuko refused to call Ozai father. This man was a tyrant and he'd never been a father to Zuko. Only to Azula, his perfect firebending prodigy.

He remembered to play with his baby sister before all the bending stuff started. But then Ozai took her away after he'd seen her potential for an amazing bender. After that, Zuko barely saw his sister and she suddenly she changed into the Azula today …. or well, the Azula before she went crazy.

_Maybe Azula was never sane_, he thought, remembering his uncle's words, when they were still fugitives:

_She is crazy and she has to go down. _

He went into his bedroom and took off his shirt, revealing the scar on his chest Azula had caused with her lightning. In their Agni Kai - Fire Duel. He shuddered. It was a terrible memory. On this day, he was ready to take her life if it was necessary and so was she. But that didn't really surprise him. He knew Azula hated him. And he thought he hated her. But that wasn't true.

He put on his Fire Lord robes and ordered some servants to do his topknot and just as they were about to finish, a knock on his chamber door interrupted him.

"Fire Lord Zuko, Doctor Kuay's airship just landed." He heard a servant say.

Zuko sighed. "Thank you for the notification. Take my sister to her room and tell the guards to oversee her, while I have a talk with Doctor Kuay. Tell him to meet me in the throne room. I'll be there in a minute."

**OoOoO**

Zuko was already waiting in the throne room, when the Doctor came in. The Fire Lord rose from the burning throne and walked over to the Doctor. The old man bowed his head in greetings and Zuko nodded in response.

"Doctor Kuay, I hope you had a pleasant journey. Did my sister cause any problems?"

"Fire Lord Zuko. Everything went fine, but it seems that Azula isn't aware of what is happening around her. She was talking to herself the most time."

Zuko frowned. "You mean with her hallucinations?"

"Yes, she was arguing with someone. Of what I heard, she was talking to your mother."

Zuko's eyes widened.

_Why was Azula hallucinating about their mother? Azula had never cared about her, so why?_

"My mother? Is it because I told Azula that I was going to search for our mother?" Zuko asked, more to himself than to the Doctor.

"No, most of her hallucinations are about her mother, my lord. She's always arguing with her about something we could not figure out.

"What! And you didn't tell me?"

"I did not think it was necessary, my lord."

"That's … weird." Zuko couldn't understand. He'd thought she was hallucinating about conquering Ba Sing Sae, killing Zuko, shooting lighting at the Avatar and all this stuff.

"Oh, one other thing." The Doctor took a long roll of paper out of his sleeves.

"Try not to mention the words Avatar, war, Ba Sing Sae, honor, Agni Kai, Fire Lord … Especially not Fire Lord **Zuko**, flying bison, blind girl, boomerang, water tribe, waterbender peasant, father, mother, uncle, prince, Ty Lee, Mai, friends, Dai Li, betrayal, servant, cherry, Li and Lo, …

**OoOoO**

_A few minutes later:_

"…. prison, mental hospital, asylum, insane, hallucination, lunatic, psycho and monkey."

The Doctor finally stopped reading and handed the roll of paper over to Zuko.

"She gets pretty aggressive when she hears these words. If you have any other problems, you can send us a hawk, of course. Good luck, Fire Lord Zuko."

With that, Doctor Kuay left the throne room and Zuko went to his room and changed from the Fire Lord's robe into his normal outfit, so that Azula wouldn't get aggressive when she saw him. He then headed for his sister's room. Two imperial firebenders were guarding Azula's door. She maybe wasn't the same Azula anymore, but that didn't mean she wasn't a firebending prodigy. He entered the room and found Azula sitting on the bed, knees pulled to her chest and looking outside the window. She was wearing her top knot once again (without the crown) and was dressed in Fire Nation clothes. Her hands were cuffed and so were her ankles, but besides from that, she appeared normal. She turned her head to him when he neared her, but her face remained emotionless. Zuko sat down next to her.

"Azula, how are you?"

Her blank expression instantly turned into a face like thunder.

"I don't need your pity!"

"Azula, I was just asking how you're feeling. That does not mean I'm pitying you."

She looked like she wanted to say something, but remained silent. Zuko put a hand on her shoulder and she first stiffened, then relaxed after a while. He smiled. Maybe his sister just needed someone she could talk to.

"You can talk to me, you know? If something troubles you -"

"Stop acting like you care about me! I know why I am here! I am the only way for you to find mother, so don't pretend like you really want to know what's going on inside me!" Azula snarled.

Zuko instantly took his hand away from his sister's shoulder in shock.

_What kind of mood swing was that? _

"Azula I'm sorry if I said something wrong."

He saw her clench her fists and narrow her eyes.

"Look …. the war is over now! Aang defeated our father and he will never be able to harm us again. Everything is good now! I had a really hard time as the new Fire Lord but I got over it and you'll get over your problems, too! Look you just came out of a mental hospital! That's already something, isn't it?"

He saw her face turning red.

He then quickly added: "Your friend Mai is also here! And uncle Iroh extra came over here from his tea shop in Ba Sing Sae! We'll all have lunch together! Come on, Azula! We're just trying to help you!"

Zuko looked at her face and he knew he'd tipped her over the edge.

"I DON'T NEED ANY HELP OF YOU FOOLS!" She shrieked.

Zuko jumped into the air in shock and fell from the bed, landing on his tailbone.

"Owww!" He yelled in pain.

"SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF HERE!"

Zuko bobbed up and was still surprised by the sudden blowup of his sister. Then he realized his mistake.

_Damn it! I said the no-go words!_

The door groaned and one of the firebenders looked into the room. He first looked at the Fire Lord, whose topknot was a mess now and then at the heavily breathing princess with a crimson red face.

"Is everything alright in here, Fire Lord Zuko?"

"Yes, I just wanted to go." Zuko said when he started walking to the door. He then turned around to the still angry Azula.

"You should rest a day in your chamber. You have to be exhausted from the travel. I'll have your lunch and dinner delivered to your room. But tomorrow we'll have lunch together." He looked at the firebender and added:  
"Make sure she gets rest today."

The guard nodded and closed the door behind the Fire Lord. Zuko walked through the hallway and turned around the corner where no one could see him and slapped his forehead.

"Ugh, why do I always have to screw things up!?"

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**Some of you might have noticed that the talk between Zuko and Azula in the asylum is basically from the Promise Part 3. And of course, I don't own that. **

**Anyways, hope you liked it! The next chapter will be uploaded a week from now at the latest!  
**

_Please leave a review :)_**  
**


	3. Chapter 2: Home

**Chapter 2**

Everything here felt so strange. She used to live here for almost 15 years, but this didn't feel like home. This was exactly like a prison. A comfortable prison, though. It was annoying that her hands and feet were chained to keep her off from firebending. She hadn't bent fire for a year now. That's how long she'd been in this damned 'hospital'.

She had to admit she felt much better in the palace, even if Zuko and all the other traitors were around. Her vision was much clearer and so was her head. She knew that the food in the asylum was drugged with some sort of strong tranquilizer and so she'd tried to starve herself. But her plan didn't work out that well. They had forced her to eat it, which wasn't a pleasant memory. Especially for the few nurses who got burned and scratched. But they wouldn't have drugged her, if they weren't afraid of her. That was something she was pretty proud of.

The months after this little event were pretty hazy and so she couldn't remember much of it. Now, after she slept a whole day in her room and got food without drugs (she forced one of her guards to try some chicken before she ate it herself), she felt so much fresher and younger. If her brother had not gotten her out of that 'hospital', she would have spent the rest of her life like a living corpse all alone in her cell.

Well, not all alone. Every day, her mother came to visit her, told Azula she loved her. But Azula knew that it was all just in her head. And now she got the chance to finally find out what really happened to her mother. But that wasn't the only thing she wanted. She wanted to find her and meet her. And Azula knew Zuko wasn't going to like that. He only needed her to get the information out of their father and then he would put her back in that 'hospital' – back in prison. She could not let that happen.

She stood up from the bed and walked over to the mirror. She surveyed the girl she saw in the mirror. She looked so different from the 14 year old girl, who stood here a year ago. She was now taller and her face lost a lot of baby fat. Well maybe not only baby fat. Azula had to admit that she'd lost a lot of weight. And then suddenly, a woman appeared behind Azula.

"Go away, mother," Azula snorted. "I don't want to see you."

"Azula, sweetheart, I think you need someone to talk to," Ursa said with a gentle smile.

"What is everyone's problem?! I'm totally fine!"

"No, sweetheart, I think you are confused about a lot of things. And I think you are scared."

"WHAT?! I'M NOT SCARED OF ANYONE!" Azula felt her blood pumping to her face.

"Zuko wants you to get information out of your father. Are you prepared to talk to him, sweetheart?"

All the red color left Azula's face and her eyes widened in shock. She wasn't prepared. She never was when it came to Ozai. And she had failed him. She'd lost against her weak brother and now the Fire Nation was in Zuko's hands. Gods, no. She couldn't go to her father after she'd failed him that hard. Azula shook her head and closed her eyes and felt wet tears run down her cheek.

"No, mother. I'm not. Father hates me." She opened her eyes again and looked directly at her mother.

"And so do you," she added quietly.

There was a knock on her door and Azula quickly wiped the tears away before one of her guards stepped into the room.

"Princess Azula, the Fire Lord ordered me to escort you to the private dining room."

Ursa has vanished and Azula was now fully able to concentrate on the person in front of her.

"Hmpf, then I don't want to keep him waiting," Azula said but as she walked towards the door, the guard tread in front of her.

"The Fire Lord allowed me to take off the chains. But if you try any firebending, they will be put back on."

Azula ignored the threat. She just felt relieved that the cuffs were taken off and she was once again free to move around. How long had it been since she hadn't been chained or put in a strait jacket?

Far too long.

The firebender lead her out of the room, down the hallway and the second one joined them and watched her from behind. She considered if she should attack the guard with her fire but decided against it. She was far too out of practice to start a fight now. Finally they arrived in a grand room she remembered. The Royal Family's private dining room.

Zuko already sat at table and next to him sat uncle Iroh. The old man stood up and walked towards his niece when she entered. He smiled and held a cup of tea in his hands. Of course.

"Azula, it's good to see you well on your feet again. Please join us at the table." He pointed to the seat next to Zuko. "I'll pour you some jasmine if you want. Tea always makes you feel better." He laughed hearty.

Azula looked at her uncle without any humor.

"Best 'joke' I've ever heard from you." It was impossible to overhear the sarcasm.

"That wasn't supposed to be a joke, my dear niece."

"Then why were you laughing?"

"It is said that when you laugh, it makes you 10 years younger. So I laugh as much as I can!" He laughed out loud again and Azula looked away in disgust.

"That wasn't funny either, Uncle."

"That's because you don't have any humor," Iroh protested.

"If you say so," Azula said dismissively and walked to the table and then behind Zuko, she saw another person. Mai.

Azula instantly narrowed her eyes to little slits.

"You." She said in a cold voice.

"Hello Azula." Mai still looked the same as Azula remembered her. She looked as bored as she always had.

Azula wanted to roast that traitorous little brat right now and there. But Zuko shot her a warning look and she relaxed slightly.

"It is so nice to see you again, old friend," Azula said with thick sarcasm.

"We are no friends anymore, Azula," Mai answered, her face unreadable.

"Oh yes, I forgot. You made sure of that a while ago, didn't you," Azula said with a smirk.

"Yes, and I have no regrets."

Azula tried to ignore her, but Mai's words made her angry and she clenched her fists.

_I have to control myself. Don't let your emotions overpower you, Azula. _

She walked to the free seat and sat down. The meal was served and Azula then realized how much she's missed it. Oh she loved roasted duck.

They all started eating and suddenly Zuko began talking.

"Let's get right to business now. As you know, Azula, I want to find our mother and Ozai is the only one, who knows where she went after she got banished. I need you to coax the information out of our father. You're the only one he trusts enough."

Azula stopped eating and blinked.

"Zu-Zu, did you forget that I lost the throne to you? I bet he considers me as a failure now."

Zuko looked surprised for a moment.

"But the last time I visited him he made it clear he would only tell you where mother is!"

Now it was Azula's turn to be surprised.

_Father is not mad at me?_

"He said that?" She asked slowly.

"Yes."

"Well if that is so, I'll talk to him."

Zuko looked relieved and wanted to say something, but Azula cut him off.

"But after I helped you, I won't go back to prison. I want to come with you to find _our _mother. And I am going to travel **unbound **and with **dignity, **you hear me?"

Zuko pondered for a while and then nodded.

"Deal … thank you, Azula."

Azula could see Mai look very upset.

"You know, Azula, you should be the one thanking Zuko. He got you out of the asylum."

"Well and he was the one who put me in there in the first place."

"Yes, but that's only because you tried to kill him and everyone around you."

"Can you guys please stop arguing? It makes me go nuts." Zuko roared, while Iroh just sipped from his jasmine tea.

* * *

A few hours later, Zuko, Azula and her guards arrived at the prison Ozai was kept in. A guard let them to the cell and opened it for them. Before Azula could go, Zuko grabbed her arm.

"You don't have to do anything he says. He is not a good father and he only acts in his own interest, so we'll have to be careful. Remember that."

Azula nodded and turned around and prepared herself to face her father. She took a deep breath and entered the room and was directly followed by Zuko.

The nasty smell that instantly stung into her nose made Azula want to throw up but the scene in front of her made her feel cold. Ozai – her father – sat on a simple mattress and his long filthy hair covered his face. She palpitated with fear but kept going until she was inches away from the bars.

"Oh, I am honored to have the Fire Lord once again in my company." He looked up and saw Azula standing before him, but he didn't look surprised. "Oh, dear daughter. I thought your beloved brother made sure you'd never see sunlight again."

She could hear Zuko breath out heavily. She ignored Ozai's comment, gathered her courage and knelt in front of her father, her hands grabbing the bars.

"Father, I am here to ask you where mother went."

Ozai laughed. "It does feel good to see you again, even after you've failed me so hard." Ozai said, changing the subject.

Azula opened her mouth in response but she couldn't say anything. She felt her heart tighten. She could see that her father wasn't mad at her, but his words were just as bad.

"Now tell me, Azula, why should I answer your question?"

"I – I don't -"

"You said you would tell her!" Zuko shouted angrily. "You said she was the only one you would trust to be worth this information! Now tell her!"

"Yes, I said I would tell her, so why are you here?" He asked with a smirk.

"Fine! Azula, I'll be waiting outside." With that, the young Fire Lord left the room.

"So, Azula, you want to find your dear mother."

"Yes, father. So where is she? Where did you send her?"

"Only if you do something for me in return."

"Tell me and I'll do it."

"That is my daughter," Ozai said with a smirk. "So what you gonna do is to find a man called Darzon. If you don't know, he owns a jewelry shop called the 'Shining Dragon' and it's right in the Fire Nation capital. Darzon is in the possession of a trinket I want. It is a ring you're mother gave me a long time ago. I want it back. Bring me this ring and I'll tell you where Ursa is."

Azula nodded. "I'll bring it the next time I come here, father. Goodbye." She turned around and wanted to go but then Ozai spoke again.

"And you're not going to tell anyone about this, you hear me?"

Azula wanted to protest and ask why exactly no one was allowed to know, but she remained silent and nodded quickly. The last thing she wanted now was to make her father angry.

She left the cell and heaved a sigh of relief.

_Well, that wasn't to__o__ bad, was it?_

Zuko instantly came to her.

"Did he tell you where she is?" Her brother asked nervously.

She shook her head. "No." He scowled and Azula knew she had to come up with a lie.

"He told me to bring him tea the next time I visit and he promised to tell me then."

Zuko grabbed his hair and groaned. "That's exactly what he asked me to do! And did I get the information? No!"

Azula shrugged. "I do believe he'll tell me tomorrow."

Zuko palmed his face and set out for the palace, followed by Azula and her guards.

* * *

After dinner, Azula was sent to her room. Her guards didn't cuff her again, which was a good sign. She would finally be able to practice her bending again. They locked the door so she couldn't sneak away and leave. It was already dark outside and she knew she somehow had to get the ring for her father.

_How am I going to get out of here?_

She had to be quiet. If Zuko knew she was trying to sneak out, he wouldn't hesitate to put her back into her prison.

She sighed and walked over to the bed. She still couldn't think right. Her head was buzzing and it was so cold in her room.

_It is time to try my firebending._

She closed her eyes and breathed out loudly. She tried to find her inner fire, but it wasn't there.

She opened her eyes and held her hand in front of her. She tried to generate a little flame in her palm but nothing happened. She tried again. Nothing.

_What the hell?_

She began to panic. She tried a few more time but got the same result.

_No, no, no, no, no! It can't be! They couldn't have taken my bending away!_

On their way to father's prison, Zuko told her the Avatar had taken Ozai's bending forever. Did the same happen to her? She couldn't remember but that might be because she had been drugged. Azula slumped to the floor in quiet sobs.

**OoOoO**

When Azula woke up, the sun was already shining brightly through her window. She blinked a few times.

_Oh my -, why am I lying on the floor?_

The princess literally jumped to her feet. She felt tired and her head hurt. What the hell happened? She couldn't remember. Azula looked around in the room she was in and the memory came flashing back at once.

Her discharge from the hospital.

Her brothers plan in finding mother.

Her conversation with Ozai.

Ozai's requirement for the information of her mother's stay.

Her discovering that her bending had been taken away.

"Ohh that's not good," a very familiar voice said behind her. "You didn't get the ring last night."

Azula swung around and saw herself standing before her in heavy armor and with an evil smirk. Azula's mouth hung open as she saw her Other continuing her speech.

"You know, father will be so embarrassed to have risen such a weakling like you. I am the much better daughter. And as if this wasn't enough, you've lost your bending … and now you're _nothing._"

Suddenly, Azula was back on her knees. She didn't want to think about it. She had lost everything after the war. Everything she'd cared about. Her friends, her throne, her sanity and her honor. And all the time in the hospital she'd thought that one thing hadn't been taken away from her. And now she learned that it had been. Her only hope, her drive. She didn't care about the tears streaming down her face.

"Ugh, you're not crying, are you? Oh come on, maybe it's not gone for ever you idiot. Think about it. The guards cuffed you and then they threatened you not to do any firebending. Why would they say that?"

They should have been informed that she'd been stripped off her bending. That didn't make sense.

"But of course, maybe the Avatar just took it from you, because you're not worth to wield blue flames."

"Leave me alone!" Azula screamed and then the door flung open and Azula spun around to see the Fire Lord come in. His face turned into a worried expression when he saw her sitting on the floor with ruffled hair and tears in her eyes.

"Azula what happened?" He slowly approached her and wanted to comfort her, but she backed away.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Azula shrieked. "IT IS _YOUR _FAULT! YOU ORDERED THE AVATAR TO DO THIS, DIDN'T YOU!?"

Zuko held up both his hands in an innocent gesture. "Azula I don't know what you are talking about! I didn't do anything!"

"Oh, Zu-Zu, always the angel. Don't pretend like you don't know," she said in a mocking voice, almost smiling.

"I really don't – "

"THE AVATAR TOOK MY FIREBENDING AND THAT IS YOUR FAULT!" She screamed, tears running down her cheek.

Zuko was clearly shocked about her mood swing, but then she realized she'd just shown him a weakness. She turned around and wiped away the tears.

_Why do I have to be so stupid? Can't even control myself when Zuzu is around!_

"Azula, no one took your bending. Especially not Aang." He walked over to her side and looked at her. "I would never let anything this cruel happen to you."

Azula didn't know if she should believe him. His eyes radiated honesty and she wanted to believe him so hard, but she just couldn't. Why was he so nice to her? They'd always hated each other!

"Then why can't I firebend anymore, huh?"

Zuko hesitated. "I'm not sure … we can ask Aang. He'll arrive tomorrow!"

Azula snorted scornfully. "I don't need any help of the Avatar."

If the Avatar didn't take her bending away, then there had to be another reason that she could not bend. So that hopefully meant it wasn't gone for ever. Good. She calmed herself. She had to wait for answers, though. First, she would have to deal with the problem that she didn't get the ring last night.

"Come on, Azula. Let's have breakfast now. Just the two of us." He gently took her hand and pulled her to her feet. She didn't resist and just followed her brother through the palace.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 3: The Ring

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**Chapter 3**

"You know, Zuko, I would appreciate it if you would let me go to the city today," Azula said after they finished breakfast.

"What?! What do you want in the city?"

"I need some new stuff, you know? Come on, I haven't been there for a whole year!"

Zuko was still wondering why his sister suddenly wanted to go to the city. Was she planning something? Was she trying to escape?

"Azula, I'm sorry but I can't take the risk. And besides, I don't want all the people to know that you're out of the hospital."

Azula smirked. "Why? Do you think this makes you look weak, huh?"

"No, it's just that … you're a symbol for the resistance group and …"

Azula raised an eyebrow. "There is a resistance group?"

"Yeah, the people who are still loyal to Ozai," Zuko said with a saturnine look.

"How comes I'm a symbol? I am not the same princess anymore. I mean I really am _insane_," she said with a grin.

"Don't speak like that about yourself, Azula. It's not even true."

"Says the guy who put me in a _mental institution to help me get rid of my lunacy_. That's an objection, isn't it?"

Zuko groaned. "Yeah, okay, I have to admit, you weren't well, but the point is, this resistance group doesn't believe it. They think I just put you there, because it's not suitable for a Fire Lord to lock his own sister into a prison."

"Yeah, well, the _asylum _was not very different from a prison."

"Azula," Zuko said, trying to ignore her comment, "the resistance group isn't the only reason. There are a few people who wanted me to execute you and if they find out that I freed you, there will be consequences for you and me."

"But I could dress up as a normal citizen or something!"

"I said no." Zuko turned around. "Make sure she stays in the palace." He said to one of her guards and walked out of the room, leaving his sister behind.

* * *

Azula sat cross-legged in her room and stared out of the window and down into the royal garden.

_How the hell am I getting out of here? _

She got to her feet, left her room and walked down the hallway.

"Where are you going, princess?" The guardsman called behind her. "You're not allowed to leave the palace. That's the Fire Lord's orders."

"Look around you idiot, we _are _in the palace," she answered, clearly annoyed.

The two guards followed her and Azula sighed.

_Gods, Zu-Zu really doesn't trust me at all …_

_At least he's not that foolish anymore._

"Then at least tell us, where you're going."

"You'll see," Azula said without slowing down.

Finally she went through a grand door to the garden. She took a deep breath and looked around the colorful garden.

_Everything is still the same. Nothing has changed. _

She walked over to the pond and the turtle ducks. The tiny animals immediately swam away from her. The princess chuckled.

_At least the turtle ducks still fear me._

She sat down in front of the pond and let her thoughts drift away.

"_Hahahah, no mother stop, haha!" an eight-year-old Zuko brought out between loud laughing attacks. Ursa stopped to tickle her son and smiled at him. Zuko smiled back and hugged his mother._

_"I have some bread here, why don't we feed the turtle ducks?" Ursa broke off some crumbs from the bread and threw them into the water. The little turtle ducks quickly came over and ate them. Zuko giggled and did the same. Ursa pointed at the smallest turtle duckling. _

"_Look how cute and small this one is!"_

"_Azula says, they are ugly beasts." _

"_You don't have to believe anything she says, Zuko." Ursa looked at him and stroke his hair. _

"_Azula sometimes doesn't think about the words she says."_

_Azula watched them, hiding behind a tree. She was angry. Angry at her brother and mother. _

_**I always think about what I'm saying! Father told me I would always have to be in control over my mind and words. **_

_She wanted to scream this right into their faces but decided against it and kept hidden behind the tree. _

"_I have to go, Zuko sweetheart." Ursa kissed his forehead and walked away into the palace._

_Azula jumped out from her hideout and stood before him, arms crossed._

"_Oh, poor Zu-Zu has to play alone now. The only friends he has are these few ugly beasts," she mocked and walked over to him. She could see that her brother was about to cry. Weakling._

_She picked the bread up._

"_You wanna see how to feed turtle ducks?" She said with a wide grin and threw the bread at the little turtle duckling. It got hit by the bread and vanished under the water for a few seconds, but it quickly came to the surface again and started quacking loudly. The turtle ducks fled in terror._

_Zuko stared at her."Why did you do this?"_

"_Because I'm not as weak as you. I don't need mother to show me how things are done."_

_She turned her back to the confused Zuko and stalked away._

Azula swung her head to one of the guards. "Bring me some bread. I want to feed the turtle ducks." Then she pointed at the other guard. And you bring me a chair. I don't want to sit on the filthy ground." Both guards bandied baffled looks.

"But we can't leave you without supervision. That's the Fire Lord's orders."

"Hello? I just want to feed the turtle ducks and I am in the garden, so I got nowhere to run. And besides, the Fire Lord ordered you to babysit me and that means you have to do what I tell you and I just want you to get some stuff for me. So you better hurry and get it _now._"

They nodded and sprinted back into the palace. Azula waited until they were gone and sighed. Idiots.

She assured that no one was watching her and got behind the tree where she'd always been hiding to stalk her mother and Zuko. She cleared away the stones under the tree until some sort of wooden trapdoor was exposed. It was hard to realize this wasn't something natural. The wood was rotten, grass and dirt were everywhere on it and the grasp was hard to see. She grabbed the lid, lifted it up and coughed as dust was whirled into her face. She shook it off and climbed through the trapdoor. Azula placed the lid back into its place and walked through the tunnel.

_I have to be back before they find the trapdoor. _

These tunnels were an underground city. They were made for the royal family to ensure their escape from the palace in case it gets attacked. When she was still an innocent, little girl, she and Ty Lee found the trapdoor by accident, when they played hide and seek. They never told anyone about it and she doubted Zuko knew about this. It was dark down here and she wished she could use her firebending to lighten it all up. She almost tripped over a stone and cursed.

_The sooner I'm out of here, the better._

Finally Azula saw some light, marking the end of the tunnel. The light came from above and she remembered that the tunnel was ending in a well.

"Joy." The princess muttered to herself and began climbing out of the well.

O.o.O.o.O

Darzon was just cleaning some trinket when a girl with wet clothes and an angry look entered his shop. But of course, everyone who came to visit his shop might bring him some money and so he smiled nicely.

"Good morning, milady! What can I do for you? Looking for something special?"

"Yes, can you show me the rings you have?"

Darzon instantly knew who that girl was.

"Oh, princess Azula," he bowed and saw her eyes widen, "I was told you would come by for a visit."

"Wait, what? Who told you that?"

"That doesn't matter." He said with a smile. The princess wanted to protest but Darzon walked to a shelf and took out a coffer. He opened it with the key, which hung around his neck and it clicked open. He showed her the insight of the chest.

In there was a golden ring with a red jewel. In that jewel, there was a symbol marked in.

(∞)

She smiled at him and held her hand out.

"Now give it to me."

"I have one condition." Darzon said, putting the coffer onto his desk, and Azula groaned.

"I want you as a teacher." The princess raised an eyebrow at this.

"You want _what_?" She hissed angrily. He knew he was getting on her nerves.

"You are one of the greatest firebenders alive. I want you to teach me, so that I can improve my firebending."

She stared at him and blinked a few times.

"You dare to impose such an idiotic condition?" She said dangerously, ignoring the fact that he'd actually meant it as a compliment.

"Um, Yes?" He asked, a bit unsure.

She waved her hand. "No."

Darzon crossed his arms. "Then you won't get the ring."

She turned her back to him and examined the room. There was no one there except the two of them. Darzon, still waiting for an answer, took one step towards her and was fully caught by surprise when she spun around and her foot hit him square in the face. There was a sharp pain in his nose and he knew it must be broken. Darzon yelled and tumbled back against his desk. Another foot hit him in his temple and the last thing he remembered was falling to the floor.

**O.o.O.o.O**

Azula stood over the limp body with a satisfied smile on her face. The young man she'd just beaten up had to be around 17 and he was quite good-looking so Azula couldn't help it but feel a little bad when she saw the blood streaming out of his nose. She shrugged. Only an idiot would try to negotiate with her. She walked over to the desk and got the golden ring. She had a long close look at it before she turned towards the unconscious figure laying on the floor.

_What do I do with him now? I can't kill him, but if I let him live he might broadcast that he got a visit from the princess._

She mused for a while but came to no result. Darzon groaned and his eyes flattered opened. His hand moved to his broken nose and he winced at the touch. Azula bend down and grabbed his coat. Her face was inches away from his.

"First of all, I want to know who told you I would want that ring?"

"My brother, Zhasan! I – I don't know why – please, I'm telling the truth!"

She regarded him for a while and decided he wasn't lying to her.

"If you tell someone I came by, I will hunt you down." Darzon looked at her with wide eyes.

"And then I will kill you. Understood?" She added with a wicked smile. He uttered a very unmanly quiet cry of pure horror. Azula took it as a yes and let him drop down to the floor. She hid her face under her hood and headed for the well. She'd already spent to much time here and she knew the guards had to be looking for her by now.

**O.o.O.o.O**

"What do you mean with 'we lost her'?!" Zuko shouted angrily at the two firebenders.

Both the guards looked ashamed to the ground. They were now walking to the garden, where the guards have last seen Azula. They had went to get some 'stuff' for Azula, but by the time they came back, she was gone and nowhere to be found. They've been searching for almost half an hour now.

Zuko shook his head. "What stuff were you getting for her?"

"She said she wanted to -" The guardsman was cut off by a scream that came from the garden.

_Azula.  
_

Zuko dashed forward and ran around the corner into the courtyard. He wasn't ready for what he saw.

Azula, lying in the pond and clenching her foot, her features distorted with pain.

"Azula, what happened? Where have you been!?" He helped her out of the pond and she limped over to a bench, where she sat down with a groan.

"I was waiting for these two sluggish blighters," she pointed at her guards, "to bring me a chair and some bread and they let me wait too long so I had to look for it by myself!"

One of the guards took a step towards Zuko. "Fire Lord, I'm sorry we let her out of sight. It will not happen again." Zuko nodded and tuned to his sister.

"And how happens you land in the pond?"

Azula sighed. "I finally found back into the courtyard and accidentally tripped over something."

Zuko shook his head. "Come on Azula, you're a better liar than that."

In response she held both her hands up innocently. "Do you really think I would fall into that pond and hurt my foot just for fun?"

The Fire Lord shook his head again in disbelief. "Take her to her room and don't let her out of sight again. Get a healer to take a look at her foot." He warned the guards, who bowed and vanished with the princess.

Zuko narrowed his eyes. He definitely didn't believe his sister. She was up to something and he knew it wasn't good.

He would keep a watching brief over Azula.

* * *

Later that day, Azula asked uncle Iroh to make some tea for Ozai before visiting him again. Now, the siblings were standing in front of their father's cell. Azula took the tea-pot and a cup and then entered the cell.

Ozai sat cross-legged on his mattress and greeted his daughter with a smile. Azula knelt in front of him, but before they could start the conversation, Zuko joined them.

"I said I want to talk to her _alone._" Ozai growled. Anger clear on his face.

Zuko responded with a shrug. "And I accepted it the last time. But you know, Ursa is also my mother and so I have the right to be here, too." If looks could kill, Zuko would be dead now.

"Zuko is right. He has the right to be here. You made a promise to me and I did what you wanted me to do." She took the ring out of her coat and made sure it was not in Zuko's field of vision. While she was talking, she let it slip into the tea-pot. Ozai saw the golden ring and because of flash in his golden eyes, she could tell she got the right one.

"I brought you some tea." She poured some in a cup and handed it over to her father.

Ozai took a sip and nodded. "Are you sure you want to find Ursa? She was banished for a reason, my children."

Zuko glared. "She saved me from you! You were planning to have me killed!"

Ozai laughed. "Ah, yes, she saved _her son_ from the big bad father." His eyes stared into Azula's. "Then why do you want to find her? I don't think she would have done the same for you."

Azula gasped, but Zuko stepped in front of his sister, shielding her from Ozai.

"Stop! You made a promise and you're gonna keep it!"

Zuko narrowed his eyes and the foremer Fire Lord yawned. "Fine, fine. You'll find her in the Earth Kingdom village … damn, I forgot the name."

The Fire Lord wanted to yell again, but Azula moved to the bars and when she spoke, her voice was shaking. "You will tell us the city's name or you won't get any more tea." She held up the teapot.

"I don't like your tone, Azula."

"It wasn't a joke, father!" Panic came to Azula. "Please, tell me! I did everything you wanted me to do!"

Zuko raised an eyebrow and she knew she'd made a mistake. Ozai seemed like he didn't notice anything and took another sip of his tea.

"Yes, the tea is absolutely brilliant … well well, the village is in the East of the Earth Kingdom. At the center of the forest _Huo Li. _But," Ozai sighed in fake sadness, "I doubt Ursa still lives."

"What?!" The siblings shouted at the same time.

Ozai shrugged. "I'm just thinking logically. I forced her to live in enemy region and if someone found out she was Fire Nation, which is very likeable, they would have executed her right away. Maybe that's why she didn't come by for a visit to congratulate Zuko for becoming the new Fire Lord."

There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence until Azula sighed. "We got what we wanted, Zuko. Let's get out of here." She left the teapot near the bars, so that Ozai could get her mother's ring. "Goodbye, father." Azula walked out of the room. Knowing she wouldn't come back, she looked over her shoulder to see her father for the last time.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 4: The Perfect Daughter

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**Chapter 4**

Azula sat in her room, thinking about what her father said. She had to admit, his words did hurt. She knew Ozai thought of her as a failure but she didn't expect him to strike her that hard with _words._

But Ozai was right. Her mother wouldn't have done the same for her. She would have let father kill her and then Ursa could have spent the rest of her life happily with precious Zuko. So why in the hell was she doing all this? Why try to find mother? Why was she still doing what Ozai wanted her to do? Why –

There was a knock on the door and Azula groaned. "Who's there?"

Zuko opened the door and came in without asking. Azula whirled around to her brother.

"Hey! You should ask before you –"

"Spit the truth out, Azula." He stood there, completely calm, with an unreadable face.

Azula raised an eyebrow. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know you're up to something. With Ozai." His face darkened. "I'm not stupid you know."

She slightly turned her head and looked out of the window, watching the bright, orange sunset.

"Look at this sunset, Zu-Zu. Isn't it beautiful?"

"I'm losing my patience, Azula! I tried to be nice to you since you arrived at the palace and that is how you pay me back? Planning something behind my back to overthrow me!" He growled.

Her head swung back to him, her eyes piercing into his. "I never said that, Dum-Dum."

"Then why are you avoiding the question!? What is your secret?" Zuko yelled, completely ignoring the nickname.

"It wouldn't be a secret if I tell you." She grinned at him.

"Fine. Then you'll stay in the palace while I search for mother."

The grin faded on her face. "What! You can't do that!"

"Oh, I can. It's the best for both of us." Zuko turned around and wanted to leave but Azula grabbed his wrist.

"Wait! I'm sorry, Zuko." He looked at her, waiting for an answer to his question.

"I – I can -"

A guard opened the door. "Fire Lord Zuko, Avatar Aang and Master Sokka just arrived. They are waiting for you in the throne room."

"They are a bit early. They said they wouldn't arrive before tomorrow." Zuko shook his head and turned his attention towards his sister again. "We will talk about this later. For now, you will stay in your room." He headed for the throne room and left Azula alone in her chamber.

She had to come up with a better lie for Zuko. Or she should tell him the truth. For the first time, she wondered why exactly Ozai didn't want anyone to know about the ring. Was he planning something? Or did he just want to have a memento from Ursa? She didn't know. She didn't know what to believe.

"Oh, poor little girl! Doesn't know what to do!" The mocking voice came from the other Azula. Ozai's perfect prodigy. "You know," perfect Azula continued, "I think Ozai made it pretty clear that he doesn't care about you anymore. He may have never cared.

"He abandoned you on the day of the comet, so why do you think you still have to serve him?" Perfect Azula asked.

"I owe him," Azula managed to say. "Without him as a teacher, my firebending would never have gotten that good."

"And look where it brought you." The Other's cold eyes stared at Azula, making her feel uncomfortable.

"You ended up in an asylum, drugged and locked away for a bit longer than a year. You deserved it of course. I mean you should have seen yourself. It was pathetic. I can't believe I turned into _something like that."_ The Other spit the last words out in disgust.

Azula clenched her teeth. That was all just in her head! This wasn't real!

"And now, you can't even bend anymore!" Perfect Azula laughed. "Right now, you are just sitting in the palace without any plan on what to do. Do you really want to find your mother? The mother who thought you were a monster! Hah! And she really should take a look at her insane daughter! You really are a monster. That is why everyone **hates **you. That's the only explanation."

Tears rolled down Azula's cheek, but she didn't care. She lunged at Perfect Azula with a scream, but she went straight through her and fell to her knees. Once again, her Other had been right. Everyone hated her. Mother, father, Zuko, uncle, Mai, Ty Lee …

"Not everyone hates you." Came a voice from behind her.

Azula groaned. "Ugh, I was already about to celebrate that I finally got rid of you."

Her mother shook her head sadly. "Azula, there are people who care about you, but you never let them. Your brother for example. He is trying to trust you."

"I don't want his trust! I don't need it! And I don't need you lecturing me! I just want all of you to leave me alone!"

"You really should tell Zuko about the ring you gave Ozai, don't you think."

"No! I haven't done anything wrong! I mean what terrible thing could be done with a stupid ring! And besides, I promised father not to tell anything."

"So you're still loyal to the man, who never loved you, raised you to be a weapon, abandoned you after he decided you're no use to him anymore and left you to be crowned Fire Lord – a worthless title at that time?!"

Azula looked down to her feet. She didn't want to believe her mother's words, but everything she said was true.

"You dare to talk like this? You're the one who abandoned me in the first place! If you didn't want my dad to turn me into a weapon, why didn't you stop him, huh?" She turned her back to her mother. "You rejected me. I don't know why I'm trying to find you. Maybe it's because I want to set you on fire by myself." She looked into the mirror in front of her and saw her mother's eyes filling with tears before she vanished.

Azula broke out in tears. She tried to stop them running down her cheek, but she was overpowered by her emotions. Once again. Everyone wanted her to do something. She felt used by them. Zuko, father and mother. She couldn't satisfy any of them. Why should she? She wasn't a slave. But she couldn't do anything against it. She just didn't know what to do anymore.

**OoOoO**

"Zuko!" Aang ran towards the Fire Lord and hugged him. "It is so nice to see you again."

Sokka stood next to him and saluted the Fire Lord with a wide grin.

"Hey Aang, hey Sokka," Zuko smiled at his two best friends. "It's good to see you again."

"We instantly came here after receiving your letter. So, did you find out where your mother is?"

Zuko nodded. "Ozai sent her to an Earth Kingdom village in the East. It's somewhere in a forest."

"Oh, I smell a big adventure right there," Sokka said. "Three brave men going through thick and thin to rescue the Fire Lord's mother!"

"Well um, there's someone else co –," Zuko tried to say, but he was cut off by an excited Aang.

"Oh, are we going to travel with one of your cool airships? I mean, since Katara took Appa to fly to Ba Sing Se a while ago." He smiled brightly. "She says hi by the way."

Zuko grinned. "Good, old Katara. What is she doing in Ba Sing Se? And where's Toph?"

"She's sorting some stuff out with King Kuai. Something between the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes. She's only allowed to do so, because she's the Avatar's girlfriend of course," Aang said proudly and Zuko and Sokka both groaned.

"Do not start with this again, Aang!"

"Oh and I also have some business to finish over there. You know, about this idea I had. This city where benders of all four nations and non benders could live together peacefully. So if you don't mind we can stop by in Ba Sing Se," Aang said with a nod, "Ah and Toph's busy visiting her parents."

They kept talking while they walked through the palace. They arrived in the dining room and Zuko ordered the food to be served while he slipped out of the room.

He went to his sister's room and wanted to open the door, but stopped when he heard her crying.

"For how long has this been going?" He asked the guards.

"She started this shortly after you left, your lordship, and she screamed and argued with someone."

Zuko was really surprised and he felt terribly guilty. He should comfort his sister, not make her cry. He accused her of something he didn't even know it was true. He opened the door and knelt down next to his sobbing sister.

"Azula?" He whispered. No answer came and he reached out a hand to touch her.

"No! Go away!" She slapped his hand away and backed off into the back of her room.

"Azula, let me help you. I'm sorry if I upset you earlier," he tried but his sister kept on crying. "Is it because of father?" He asked her softly.

She didn't say anything, instead she buried her face in her hands. He gently put both his hands on her shoulder. "You will never have to see him again, Azula. You are free of him now."

"You don't understand, Zuko! I am weak! I am pathetic and weak! Everyone hates me, I mean I deserve it after all! This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been weak in the first place! Father was right …," her face darkened, "I am just a miserable failure."

"_Oh, what an honor! Three visits of the new Fire Lord in such a short period of time." Ozai smirked at Zuko. "What brings you here, my **son**?"_

"_I am here for the same reason as always. Where is my mother?"_

_Ozai laughed and clapped his hands. "Congratulations, Zuko, you're much stupider than I thought. I will **never **tell **you**."_

_Zuko grabbed his hair in frustration. It had been two months since his father's great defeat and Ozai still possessed power over him._

"_I can't even believe I raised such a failure. You are a disgrace for Sozin's line." Zuko pressed his lips together. He would not lose control in front of this man. That was what Ozai wanted and he wouldn't give him this satisfaction._

"_The **new Fire Lord**", Ozai spat the words, "Stealing the crown from his poor little sister. I heard you weren't even capable of killing her. You really are **weak**."_

_That was enough. Zuko burst out in anger. "**I didn't steal the crown! It always belonged to me! I am the older brother!" **And then he blinked furiously, **"And I am not ****like ****you. I would never ****hurt ****anyone**** of my own family. I would never kill ****my sister. Never!" **_

_Ozai laughed at the speech of his son. "Such a shame. I think she would have preferred death much more than living with the fact that she's officially announced a failure." _

_Zuko blinked a few times. "I didn't announce her a failure." _

_Ozai smiled. "I did."_

_Zuko was too shocked to reply at once. Hasn't his sister always been his favored child?_

"_You are joking right? And by the way, she has no contact with you. She wouldn't even know."_

"_Ah well", Ozai said, straightening his back, "I think she doesn't need anyone to tell her. But, hm, maybe you're right considering her condition shortly before the arrival of the comet."_

"_Gods, you're nuts. This is some bad trick isn't it? You want me to actually believe this bullshit. But I tell you something", Zuko's face was inches away from Ozai's, "You can't manipulate me anymore. I got over it. You have to try better than that." Zuko turned around sharply and left the room, accompanied by the sound of Ozai's uncontrollable laughter. _

"Shhhh..." Zuko gently placed his sister's hands into his big ones.

"I – I don't know what to do anymore …" He heard her whisper.

Ozai hadn't lied to him. How could Zuko be so stupid and blame his sister to be involved in a plotting? Ozai would never want Azula to join him. He knew she'd slowly slipped into madness, so he just thought of her as a weakling. And he didn't even know she'd lost her firebending! Zuko felt sympathy for his sister. Her whole life, she'd been favored by her father and did everything for him. But now Zuko realized. He just treated her like a tool, his perfect weapon. And once he didn't need her anymore, he threw her away like some old garbage.

He squeezed her hands softly. "Hey, everything's alright. No one will hurt you," He looked into her eyes and smiled at her, "I won't let anything happen to you! Because I'm the big brother. Remember? Just like in the good old times. Father tried to make us hate each other, but we won't live like father wanted us to."

Azula wiped away her tears and blinked. "Thank you … Zuzu." She smiled a little and Zuko returned the smile. "You're welcome."

But then her face instantly turned serious. "No one will ever hear about this, do you understand?"

Zuko's smile even grew bigger. "No one will know about your embarrassment."

**OoOoO**

"Mhmm this pork is so delicious, Aang," Sokka said, cramming as much meat into his mouth as possible.

"Sokka, I am vegetarian. I don't like to eat poor, dead animals," Aang responded, shaking his head. Suddenly, Zuko entered and Aang turned to him.

"Zuko! What did you take so long! We've been waiting forever!" Aang wasn't upset, he was just curious. Maybe Zuko prepared some small surprise for his two best friends. Aang's face brightened.

"You've got a surprise for us, don't you?"

"Yeah, kind of," Zuko stopped and blushed, struggling to find the right words. "You know, I should have told you earlier, but yeah, um, I'm telling you know, so, ahem, there's someone you might know and this person will help us, um, find Ursa."

"Oh, and who's that person?" Sokka asked, still eating his piece of pork.

"She – she's, um, well, it's A-" And right at this moment, Azula, followed by two imperial firebenders, came into the room.

"AZULA?!" Aang and Sokka shouted at the same time. Sokka dropped his pork and Aang just stared with gaping mouth from Zuko to Azula and then back to Zuko.

"The Avatar and the water-boy. Nice to meet you again."

"YOU FREED HER?!" Aang and Sokka both shouted. Sokka raised an eyebrow at Aang. "This same-thoughts-thing has to end, it's creepy." Aang nodded quickly, his eyes still locked on Azula. She'd lost a lot of weight and her skin was paler than ever. She had dark rings under her red eyes and looked unhealthy.

Zuko shrugged. "She was the only person, who would have gotten the information out of Ozai. She helped me out and so I allowed her to come with us." Zuko smiled at Azula, but she didn't return it.

"But – but Zuko, this has to be the **worst idea ever! **I mean – I mean this is Azula we're talking about!" Aang shouted.

The princess rolled her eyes. "Oh, Avatar, should I take that as a compliment or an insult?"

"Aang, she really changed! The asylum –"

"Zuko, seriously, some people never change! And your sister is one of them!" Sokka said with narrowed eyes, holding his boomerang in one hand.

Azula was getting annoyed and waved her hand in front of the young warrior. "Hello, I am standing right next to you, you **idiot**."

Sokka cried out in victory and pointed a finger directly at Azula's face. "Hah, got ya! See Zuko, she's just as evil as she was before."

Zuko shook his head, but before he could say something, Azula slapped away Sokka's hand and grabbed his throat, pushing him against the wall.

"If you don't keep your dirty peasant fingers away from my face-" Zuko grabbed his sister from behind, so she had to let go of Sokka. Aang instantly ran to his heavy breathing friend and made sure he wasn't injured. He then turned around angrily to the royal siblings.

"See, Zuko, Azula didn't change at all."

But now it was Zuko who got angry. "Sokka provoked her! Just because I got her out of the asylum doesn't mean she already got over her past!"

Aang could see the point in it and his face softened, but Azula didn't seem to calm down.

"I can speak for myself you morons! Stop acting like I'm not here!" With that, she stalked out of the room, closely followed by her guards.

Zuko shook his head in desperation. "That was a complete flop."

"Sorry, Zuko. That was my fault." Sokka said and scratched his neck, receiving a glare from Zuko.

"She's going through a lot right now." Zuko said. "She's still unstable and her recovering will take time. I hope she'll get better when we find mother. She needs this." His friend looked directly into the young Avatar's eyes. "And I do, too."

Aang smiled. "I understand, Zuko. That's why I'm here, isn't it? In case Azula gets mad or something."

Zuko nodded. "Exactly. I know she's not the same Azula anymore, but there's still the risk she would turn her back on me. But," Zuko sighed, "she told me she can't firebend anymore and she believes you took them away."

Aang, deeply surprised by this information, widened his eyes and threw his hands in the air. "But I didn't!"

"I know, Aang," The Fire Lord smiled faintly. "Do you have any idea, why she can't anymore?"

Sokka, who had followed the conversation thoughtfully, rubbed his chin. "Zuko, you remember when you've lost your bending, after you've joined us? Maybe the same happened to Azula. But I personally think she's better off without it."

Zuko shook his head. "She's devastated! And no, she told me she can't even produce a spark anymore. She says she can't find her inner fire.

"Anyways, we'll leave in two days and tomorrow will be a busy day for all of us, so you guys better get some sleep." Aang and Sokka followed Zuko through the palace.

"And who's going to run this place?" Sokka asked.

"My uncle is here." They stopped when Zuko turned around seriously. "And don't forget, I want no one to know about my plan on finding Ursa."

Aang raised an eyebrow. "And why's that? There's nothing wrong when you want to find your mother!"

"No, Aang, the resistance group wouldn't miss the opportunity to use this information against me. And besides, I don't want to put my sister in any danger. I mean there are people who want to kill her and what happens if the resistance group finds out she can't firebend and is useless?"

"Why would she be useless?" Aang was clearly confused now.

"I … I don't know." Zuko turned and headed for guest rooms. Sokka darted Aang a baffled look, who just shrugged.

After a few minutes of quiet walking, they finally reached their destination.

"Here you go," Zuko said. "Good night, guys."

Zuko left and Aang said Good Night to Sokka and then went into his room and climbed into his bed. His mind was full of thoughts. Was Azula really going to change? Something had happened between the siblings and it was something good, but Zuko still didn't seem to fully trust her.

_I can't blame him. It would be foolish to trust Azula. _

But everyone deserved a second chance and Aang would give her one. The young Avatar decided he couldn't sleep now, so he got into meditation pose. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his steady heartbeat.

* * *

**This chapter shows how unstable Azula is. She's not sure what she wants and what she's gonna do. There's a war going on inside her and she tries everything to hide it from other people, but of course, Zuko notices.**

**Now it's your turn! Tell me if you liked it or hated it :p**


	6. Chapter 5: Confidential Chat

**Hullo!  
**

**This chappy is actually a very long dialogue and I'm really sorry if it's kind of boring. It's extremely important for the plot, though. **

_(I'm also sorry for grammar and vocab mistakes ... grrr there are so many tenses in English! It's so confusing D: )_

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

It was already late afternoon and Aang was exhausted. He had spent the day helping Zuko with some paper stuff and now he was walking into the throne room for a council meeting.

When they entered the room, the council members were already present and bowed the Fire Lord. Zuko sat down on his burning throne, while Aang took the free seat at the grand table next to Iroh.

"Hello Iroh. Busy day, isn't it? How are you doing?" The young Avatar whispered.

"Ah, I'm fine … I miss my tea shop in Ba Sing Se, but if my nephew needs me, I'll gladly help him."

Then the meeting began. Zuko greeted everyone in the room and they started talking about the actual state of affairs in the Fire Nation and other boring stuff. Aang was about doze off, when Zuko suddenly mentioned he was going to leave for Ba Sing Se, which was the reason the Avatar was here.

"We will leave tomorrow and my uncle General Iroh agreed to watch over the nation while I'm gone."

"I mean no disrespect, Fire Lord Zuko," said General Huan, a well-built man with a hideous scar across his face, "but do you think it would be wise to leave now, when we know the resistance might be planning something?"

"Yes, they might use the opportunity and attack the palace," another council member exclaimed.

"Or they might capture our ships."

"Maybe they already assembled an army and are preparing for an attack!"

The next second, there was wild disorder of voices in the room. People jumped up from their chairs and argued with each other. Zuko stood up and coughed slightly, but the chaos didn't stop.

"BE QUIET!" The young Fire Lord shouted angrily, sending the flames in front of his throne shooting up.

Everyone in the room instantly turned quiet and returned to their seats.

"Everything is regulated. General Iroh got everything under control." Aang could see that the anger was gone, but Zuko was still nervous. Aang knew his friend hated the council meetings, because there, he always had to prove that he was the rightful and strong leader of their beloved nation. After a whole year of fighting and struggling, people accepted him as their new Fire Lord and most citizens favored him instead of Ozai.

**…**

After a time that felt like hours, the meeting finally had ended and the council members were leaving. Aang, Zuko and Uncle Iroh watched the airships depart and then turned to walk back into the palace.

"Now, nothing stands in my way anymore! I will find mother! I can't wait!" Zuko shouted, excited.

"I'll see how Azula's doing. She's been in her room all day. I'll force her to go and get some fresh air!" With these words, the Fire Lord headed for his sister's room and left Aang and Iroh.

Azula has stayed in her room the whole day. Zuko didn't want anyone to know that he was taking his sister along with him. Aang decided he was going to talk to her later, but first of all, he needed to go to the courtyard. Some quiet place where he could meditate.

"Aang, I need to talk to you about something." Iroh sighed and stopped walking. Aang waited patiently for him to continue. "I am worried about my nephew. He is so obsessed with finding Ursa, that he doesn't seem to see the risk in all of this. So much could go wrong."

Aang nodded. "You are talking about Azula, aren't you."

Iroh sighed. "She's fighting with herself, I can see that even if she tries to hide it. And Zuko told me she currently can't firebend." Iroh lifted his scrubby brows. "You don't happen to know why?"

Aang shook his head and Iroh continued. "Not that I want her to have her powers back, but I believe she needs this journey. I've talked to my brother a few times during the last year and I know what he has done to her. She is not an own person. He made her into a copy of himself, but I do think this journey will help her find her true self."

They continued walking and Aang scratched his head. "I'm sorry but I don't understand, what do you mean with 'risk'?"

"During the council meeting, we've talked about the resistance group," Iroh said and Aang quickly nodded. "I have a bad feeling about them. They are up to something and if they somehow find out that Azula was released, they won't hesitate to go after her and of course, Zuko."

"But what would they want with her?"

"They still believe Ozai is the rightful leader and so they might want to use Azula to get Ozai out of prison. If they offer her power, I doubt Azula would say no."

"So you still believe Azula hasn't changed?"

"No, she has changed or well, is changing. But after all, I believe my niece would still do everything for Ozai. She can't be trusted, Aang. Always remember that."

"You said she has to find her true self. Do you think I could help her get on the _right path_?" The young Avatar asked.

"You are right, she has never been on the right path." Iroh sighed before continuing. "Before I hit the road to conquer Ba Sing Se, she was … an innocent young child. Just like Zuko. I remember the good old days when my son Lu Ten, I and of course my brother's family went together to Ember Island. Lu Ten always played with his two little cousins." Uncle Iroh paused again and smiled slightly.

"These were peaceful times for our family. Well, when I came back from war, Azula … wasn't there anymore. She was replaced by this cruel little girl, who resembled my brother. I never protected her from Ozai like I did for Zuko. I just labeled her as a lost cause." Iroh's face dropped. "That she became the evil princess is partly my fault. She hadn't always been like this. I don't know if I can ever make up for it."

Aang was touched by Iroh's words and he put a hand on the old man's shoulder.

"Let bygones be bygones. What's important now is the future and I know that someday, you'll make peace with Azula." Aang smiled at the old man, who returned it.

"Normally I am the one who gives advice." Aang blushed and Iroh laughed. "Thank you, Avatar."

Iroh turned to walk away, but Aang then Aang shouted: "Oh and Uncle Iroh, I promise I'll help Azula."

* * *

When Aang arrived in the courtyard, he was surprised by finding Azula sitting next to the pond, throwing bread crumbs into the water. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail, not her topknot and looked like she was preoccupied in thoughts. The turtle ducks ignored her completely.

The young Avatar's face softened. She looked so innocent, when feeding turtle ducks, instead of trying to kill him and his friends. Aang approached her slowly, his foot light on the grass.

"What do you want, Avatar?" Azula asked without turning her head. "Did Zu-Zu send you here, to check if I have killed anyone?"

Aang didn't answer her on the instant. Her guards were nowhere to be seen. "No, honestly, I wasn't even looking for you. I wanted to meditate here."

Azula didn't bother to respond, but Aang didn't mind. He sat down near her, but left some space between them, in case she would feel uncomfortable and attack.

Once again, she threw some crumbs in the water and again, the turtle ducks ignored it. Azula frowned and threw the bread down next to her. "Ah, these ugly beasts just don't get that I want to feed them. They still fear me."

Aang looked at the princess, who bit her lip. "It needs time. Time heals. Some day, they might like you."

Azula looked like she was about to say something, but kept quiet.

"Zuko seems to trust you now, since I don't see any guards near you," Aang told her and she brought out a constrained laugh.

"And that's why he is a fool."

"That's not true. He just wants to help you." Aang picked up the bread she'd thrown away and broke off some crumbs to throw them to the turtle ducks.

Azula didn't answer, she just stared into the water, surveying her reflection. Aang watched her carefully, waiting for a response but none came.

He closed in a bit and expected her to strike him when he reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, but she stayed as frozen as she was.

"You know, I could help you find out why you can't bend anymore." Azula's eyes widened and she slapped Aang's hand away, screaming.

"Zuko told YOU? I don't want your help! Just leave me alone!" She got to her feet, face red with anger and stormed back into the palace.

"No, Azula! Wait!"

Aang sighed and looked after the furious princess. Once she was gone, the turtle ducks came back and ate the floating crumbs, quacking happily.

_It needs time, _he told himself, _time heals. _

* * *

"Azula? You missed dinner!" Zuko peered into the royal training room and stared at his sister, who was on the floor doing push-ups. She was wearing a training uniform and sweat trickled down her neck.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked his sister, but she gave no answer. Instead, she just increased her speed.

"Hello?" Zuko walked in front of her and bend down.

Azula grunted and pushed herself to her feet. "What does it look like, Zu-Zu? I'm preparing myself for our journey. I'm out of practice."

She turned and walked to the center of the training room and started a firebending kata. Azula punched, staying low. She then jumped and twisted in midair, kicking. No flames appeared, but her movements were as graceful as ever. Once she was finished, she just stood there for a while and stared at her hands, her body shaking from exhaustion.

"I've been doing this for hours now and I still can't even feel my inner fire," Azula said, calmly. And then suddenly she screamed and slashed at the air, but still nothing happened and Azula once again dropped down to the floor, doing pushups. She was now breathing heavily and he could see her fighting not to collapse.

"Azula, stop!" He grabbed her and to his relief, she sat up. "You'll need your strength and besides, you haven't gotten out of practice. Your forms are still perfect."

She shook her head and narrowed her eyes. "They weren't perfect. I've done better and as if this wasn't enough, I can't even firebend."

"Ugh, come on, we'll find a way, so stop pouting."

She jumped to her feet. "Why did you tell the Avatar, Zuko?! Why did you tell _him_ something this personal?"

Azula was furious and it took Zuko time to find right words.

"I thought, uh, that he could help?" He told her, a bit unsure.

"Help? Maybe it was the monk after all! Maybe he just didn't tell you! God, who knows? I bet he had to stifle a laugh when you told him about it!"

"No! Aang would never do that! Never, ever." Zuko shook his head, eyes closed.

"Just shut up and leave. I'm not finished with training."

"You should get some rest. We're departing early in the morning and -"

"Yeah, I'll go to bed early, mother."

Zuko groaned and left the training room. He needed a bath. A very hot one.

* * *

After his relaxing bath, Zuko entered his chamber and saw Mai sitting on their bed, waiting for him. He walked over to her and kissed her gently on the lips. He shoved her into bed and deepened the kiss, but then Mai pulled back, smiling up to him.

"You do know, that you won't get rid of me that easily?" Mai said and Zuko raised his only eyebrow. "Oh, is that so?" He wanted to kiss her again, but Mai took his face in her hands.

"I'm coming with you tomorrow."

"What?! No!" Zuko was instantly back on his feet. "No, you're not coming with us, who knows, it might be dangerous!"

"Are you saying I'm not capable of looking out for myself, Fire Lord?" She said, stony-faced. She pushed herself out of the bed and folded her arms, raising her brows and waited for Zuko's answer.

He took both her hands and looked her straight in the eye. "Mai, things could go wrong … and I don't want to put you in any danger. Please."

"No. I've already made my decision. I'm coming with you. I won't let Azula anywhere near you without someone watching her the entire time."

Zuko laughed. "So this is about Azula? I can handle her! She can't firebend anymore! She's no danger and besides, she really does want to find Ursa! And I don't want you to watch her the entire time!"

"Are you sure? Maybe she's just acting! And no, she's not the only reason, Zuko."

"Oh?"

"I don't want you to leave me behind again! You promised me!"

Zuko groaned. "Mai, this is something different!"

"No, it's not! You are withholding me something. Tell me."

"There's nothing-"

"Zuko."

"Mai, there really-"

"Zuko!"

"I can-"

"ZUKO!" Zuko was really surprised by Mai's sudden shouting.

"Okay, okay, fine. Ozai told us Ursa was sent to _Huo Li _forest. He might be lying and ugh, I'm still not 100 per cent sure about Azula. I mean she was really disturbed after we visited Ozai and I don't think she would ever side with him again. He made it clear he only cares about himself.

"But I still have this weird gut feeling. She somehow acted odd in the last few days."

"That is exactly the reason why I should come with you."

"Fine … but please don't start fighting with my sister again."

"No promises." Mai smiled and pushed him back on the bed.

* * *

It was shortly before sunrise, when Zuko woke up. Mai's head was resting on his chest and he smiled and gently stroke through her black hair. Today was going to be an amazing day. He couldn't wait to start their journey to find mother. He wanted to see her again so badly.

Zuko got out of bed and Mai mumbled something. He changed into his traveller's clothes and finally woke Mai.

"Zuko, it's too early, get back to sleep."

"No, Mai, I can't wait to leave! You can keep sleeping and stay at the palace if you want to. I don't mind."

Mai groaned, but got out of bed and stumbled blearily to the bathroom.

Zuko smiled and made his way to Azula's room. He pushed the door open and entered his sister's room.

"Time to wake up, Azula!" Azula just slept on and so he walked over to the curtains before the windows and parted them. He grinned when he saw that the sun has risen and its beam shined directly at Azula's face. She screamed and pulled the blanket over her head.

"Get. Out. Of. Here."

"Do you know what day it is? We're starting our search to find mother! And I always thought firebenders rise with the sun, right? So get up!"

He moved over to her bed, grabbed the blanket and pulled it away and Azula, blinded by the sudden sunbeam, growled and lunged at Zuko, pushing him to the floor.

"Wow, Azula! Calm down!"

She scowled. "First of all, since I can't firebend I am _not a_ firebender, which gives me the right to sleep as long as I want to and secondly I -"

"But I am the Fire Lord and I order you to get up now. If you don't, we'll depart without you."

"LEAVE!" She jumped back into her bed and pulled the pillow over her head.

Zuko chuckled and left her. She was awake and so he headed for the guest rooms. He rubbed his palms together and smiled wickedly. Waking Sokka and Aang was going to be so much fun.

**O.o.O.o.O**

"Seriously Zuko, your good mood is scaring me," Sokka said, grumbling. Zuko smiled and took a deep breath, looking up to the airship in front of him. They were almost ready for takeoff. Now, the group was standing on the landing platform, waiting for the servants to finish loading in masses of supplies.

"We are going to travel with one of your airships! Yay!" Aang said, big-eyed.

"Yes, that's absolutely fantastic," Azula said sarcastically, rubbing her eyes.

Mai, obviously bored, nodded in agreement. She and the princess were getting along quite well, now that they didn't talk to each other.

"Are we flying straight to this stupid _Huo Li _forest?" She asked Zuko, lifting her brows.

"First, we are going to Ba Sing Se. Aang has some unfinished business to do over there and besides, we're gonna pick up Katara."

Azula groaned. "Do we have to take that waterbender bitch along with us? It's no secret that we hate each other."

"Hey!" Aang shouted, "Katara is not a bitch!"

"Whatever," Azula said dismissively. From out of the corner of her eye, she could see Uncle Fatso nearing them.

"Zuko! Wait!" The old man stumbled towards them and Azula shook her head in disgust. Her uncle was out of breath and carried some supplies. The princess narrowed her eyes when she saw what he was holding. A bag full of tea supplies.

"You can't go without jasmine tea!" Iroh handed the bag over to Zuko and placed a hand on Zuko's shoulder.

"Please, be careful." He looked around into the group. "All of you."

Iroh's eyes rested on his niece, but Azula looked away, ignoring him. Iroh sighed and stepped back.

The group made its way into the airship and waved to Iroh, all except Azula, who disappeared into the airship.

The old man sighed again and watched the airship disappear in the distance. He just hoped his nephew and niece would find peace on their journey. Not only with each other, but with themselves.

* * *

**I hope you understand why Zuko is so extremely happy :P It took him longer than a year to find out where his mother could be and now he's finally going to search for her! I can imagine him acting like an excited child ... Ok let's not overdo things. He's acting as excited as an excited Zuko would act.** _omg my english is terrible_**  
**

**Ah and of course, Uncle Iroh. He's a very complicated character. We all know Azula doesn't like Iroh, but what Iroh feels about his niece is pretty hard to say. Somewhere in season 2 he says she's crazy and has to go down, but ****I think ****after the war he would start feeling guilty for only being there for Zuko and not Azula. That doesn't mean he trusts her, though. He wants Aang to help her and you'll see how this is going to turn out ;)**

I'm actually not sure in what kind of genre I should put this fic ... it's Family and Hurt/Comfort, but it's also Mystery and Adventure D: Hmm...

**_I'm on holidays for a week and so I'll be able to write more often. So I'm going to upload the next chapter on Thursday or Friday!_  
**

_**And since I'm not going to be lazy, don't be, too :p **_

_**Take a minute and leave a review. I can't tell you how happy they make me!  
**_

_(Oh, and to everyone who's chinese like me: HAPPY NEW YEAR!)_


	7. Chapter 6: Explosive

**Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It took me a while to upload this because this chapter is longer than usual.  
**

**Thank you once again for your reviews! Especially to the people, who review every chapter! :)) It really encourages me ;)**

**I'm sorry if I wrote the characters too one-dimensional. Character developement takes time, but maybe my writing skills are just not good enough :P**

**Thank you for telling me of course, I'll work on it :)**

**Oh, and Aang made a promise to Iroh, that he'll help Azula to get on the right path. However I make you a promise, that there won't be romantic moments between Aang and Azula :D**

**And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present you Chapter 6 of "The Search".**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 6**

The sun was at its highest point, when Azula decided to pay her brother a visit in his cabin. She knocked on his door and bit her lip. Was she really that desperate that she came running to Zu-Zu for advice?

"You may come in."

Azula entered and Zuko looked up, surprised to see his little sister standing there, hair quickly tied into a ponytail and looking rather gloomily.

"Azula! Is everything alright?"

"Can you please stop asking that every time you see me? I am fine," she hissed and walked over to the desk Zuko was sitting on.

Zuko lifted both his hands. "Okay, okay. Calm down. There must be a reason you're here, though."

Azula, shifting her weight onto her left leg, didn't respond at once.

_I can't believe I actually came here. But there's no turning back now._

"Something's bothering me," Azula mumbled, looking down at her feet. "I am really worried about my bending, Zuko,"

Her brother stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I believe everything will be fine. You know, after I joined the Avatar, I've lost my bending for a while."

These were news to her, which really interested her. She remembered Zuko's bending abilities suddenly increased a lot, after he betrayed his country. Azula looked up to him, raising her brows and Zuko continued.

"I've lost my anger, my incentive. There was nothing left, which could have powered my bending. And so I had to find a new drive."

"That's why you suddenly got so much better. Almost as good as me," Azula whispered, but her face dropped quickly. "Now you're better than me. At everything." _I am worthless, _she silently added to herself, but didn't say out loud.

"No, that's not true. You just have to find a new drive. What was your old one?"

Azula pondered for a while. "I always wanted to be the best. I wanted to show father what a strong daughter I was."

Zuko scowled. "This is all Ozai's fault."

"No! I've brought this to myself. He never cared about me, no one did. But I realized this fact much too late."

"What are you talking about? Don't you see that I'm doing everything to comfort you? And mother cared about you, too!" Zuko's face didn't betray anything he was feeling, but Azula was a professional in reading her brother. He was telling her the truth, she knew it. He may cared for her, but he didn't love her. Just like everyone else. Just like mother.

"No that's not true! Mother thought I was a monster!" She whirled around and stormed out of the cabin, closely followed by her brother. He grabbed her arm and made her look at him.

"Stop it, Azula. You don't know that." His voice was soft and so was his face and Azula found it quite comforting.

Still, she scowled at him, pulled her hand from his grip and turned around. She felt Zuko's stare on her back, but resisted the urge to turn around and go back to him.

She couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She was truly grateful that Zuko decided to take her with him. Every place was better than the asylum. And at the moment he was the only person in the world, who'd told her he cared about her well-being.

However, she still felt ashamed to have shown him her weaknesses. He always came at the wrong time, when she didn't want anyone to see her. She blushed with shame. In their Agni Kai, she'd lost control over everything and that's why he had been able to defeat her. Then he'd seen her in the asylum, where she'd been clearly out of her mind (The drugs played a grand role, though) and back in the palace, she'd cried in front of him several times.

_Stupid, stupid Azula!_

To her own surprise, Perfect Azula hasn't visited her since the last incident with Zuko. She sighed with relief and headed for her cabin, but then someone bumped into her. They both landed hard on the metal floor and it took Azula a moment to realize what had happened.

"Ow, can't you see, where you're going? I landed on my tailbone and it really huuurts." Sokka, eyes closed, rubbed his butt and groaned. The princess boiled with anger and too late, Sokka noticed, who he was talking to. Azula grasped his clothes and slammed him to the floor, kneeling above him. Her golden eyes flashed dangerously and with a creepy voice, which petrified the poor boy, she spoke: "I will let you know what real pain feels like if you bump into me again."

But Sokka, knowing he had his friends on his side and Azula wouldn't dare to hurt him, lunged forward and caught Azula by surpise, as she was thrown off. He quickly jumped on top of her, grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the floor.

Azula struggled under the young warrior, but he was stronger than he looked like. Oh, how much she would love to spit fire at him now, roasting his pathetic face. But as things were, she lied helplessly under him.

"Get off me, you filthy peasant!" She shrieked, her face red with anger.

"What's the magic word?" Sokka said with a grin and she stopped fidgeting. A brilliant idea came to Azula and she smirked. Sokka saw her evil grin and he knew that she was up to something, which was a _really bad sign_, but he wasn't ready for what happened next. The princess swung her right leg up and anchored it around Sokka's neck and had him in a headlock. With all the strength in her leg, she pushed him down to the floor and so Sokka was forced to release his hold on her wrists. With her free leg, she then kicked him hard in the face.

Sokka screamed out in pain, which was loud enough to alarm the whole crew, but Azula wasn't finished with him. She released him from the headlock and raised a clenched fist, but before she was able to strike him, guards were on top of her, locking her arms behind her back. It hurt and Azula grunted, but kept fighting. However, she couldn't win this fight,

She blushed with shame, being overpowered by the imperial guards was dishonoring. They were meant to protect her and not that peasant boy!

"Let go of me!" They ignored her protests and kept her immobilized.

"What is going on here?" Zuko's voice. Great.

"SOKKA!" Aang yelled and stormed over to his whimpering friend.

"Azula, what did you do!" All Azula could see were the Fire Lord's boots in front of her. She tried to laugh, but that wasn't easy, when two men were lying on you.

"If you didn't … realize, I can't … really see anything, … so I don't know," she muffled, but it was drowned out by Sokka's extremely loud whimpering. She was pulled to her feet, however, the guards didn't release her arms. Zuko's face was hard when he looked at his sister and in the background, she could see that the Avatar had gotten a bucket of water and was now bending water onto Sokka's clearly broken nose. His lip was split, too and his face was full of blood.

She smiled satisfied. "I taught the ignorant peasant a lesson."

"Didn't I tell you, that you would have to stay calm, when you want to come with me?" Zuko was furious. Of course his sister would try to make problems. But he didn't reckon it would happen that early. "You'll stay in your cabin for the rest of the flight. And since you can't behave yourself, two guards," he nodded to the ones holding his sister, "will keep an eye on you."

Azula wanted to protest, but then just puffed angrily, as she was led away.

**O.o.O.o.O**

It was already dark, when the airship landed on the top of the hill, where the palace stood. Zuko had ordered Azula to wait for them there, because he still didn't want anyone to know she'd been released.

The Earth King's guards greeted them and told the group to follow them inside. Now, they were making their way to King Kuai and of course, Katara.

"Oh, I can't wait to see her again! It's been more than 2 weeks," Aang shouted in pure excitement. He loved Katara so much and he couldn't stand to be separated from her for such a long time.

"Oh, how horrible," Mai said, her voice full of sarcasm, but the young monk ignored her.

"I can't wait to see her, too. Aang is pretty bad at healing." Sokka pointed at his crooked and purple swollen nose. "It hurts so mu-" His complaining was drowned out by the Avatar's loud scream.

"KATARA!" With his airbending swiftness he stormed towards the waterbender. She smiled brightly and engulfed him in a warm hug, which lasted for at least a minute. After that, they kissed.

Sokka hadn't seen his sister in a while because he'd been staying with Suki at Kyoshi Island until Zuko called his friends for help and so Sokka felt rather disappointed that Katara was so busy with kissing Aang, that she didn't seem to notice him or anyone else at all. Katara had grown taller, but Aang had succeeded to reach the same height as his girlfriend. She still looked the same, though. Her brown, long hair was down and she wore her friendly smile.

Zuko sighed, while Mai tapped her foot. Sokka walked over to the loving couple and touched Katara lightly on the shoulder.

"Sokka!" Katara hugged him and frowned. "What happened to your nose? I'll have to heal it properly later."

Sokka, preparing to tell his hard-luck story, opened his mouth widely, but Katara had already turned away to greet Zuko and Mai.

"Nevermind! I can tell you later!" He called after her, once again disappointed.

"How have you been, **sweetieeee?**" Aang asked Katara, embracing her from behind.

"Oh, ew, pleaaaaaase don't start **that **again!" Sokka shouted, looking away in disgust.

"It's been stressful, but the work is almost done. We should be able to go home by tomorrow, Aang." Katara frowned and looked to Zuko. "Why are you guys here?"

"I'm afraid you're not going home tomorrow. At least not with Aang. We're trying to find my mother Ursa and I would be honored to have you joining us."

"Oh! How wonderful, Zuko!" Katara smiled at her friend. "Tell me more later, 'cause we're having dinner with King Kuai now."

"But I'm the Fire Lord and I didn't bring my Fire Lord robes. That's embarrassing."

His friends were already walking away and so the Fire Lord couldn't do anything but follow them in his adventurer's clothes.

**O.o.O.o.O**

"I am so happy to see you all again, but where's Toph?" Katara said, after dinner. She led her friends to the guest room. Aang had stayed with King Kuai. It was a private discussion between the Earth King and the Avatar and no one was allowed to interrupt them. Not even the Fire Lord.

"Toph wasn't able to come. She's in Gao Ling, visiting her parents," Sokka answered. "If you don't mind, can you take a look at my nose? It really hurts."

They arrived at the door of the boy's sleeping room. Mai was going to sleep in Katara's room, which was on the other side of the corridor. Katara opened the room and all but Zuko entered.

"Right, um, I'll be right back, I forgot some stuff on the airship and I'll need it since we're going to stay for the night." With that, Zuko grimaced because of his poor excuse and hurried away.

"What's up with him?" Katara asked, while fetching her water bucket from the desk.

"He's kind of …" Sokka began slowly, searching for words.

"He's very nervous about finding his mother," Mai interrupted, sending Sokka a glare. It would be the best for all of them if Zuko told Katara himself that Azula was here, too.

"Ah, ok," Katara said, "so where are we going to start searching? I can't wait! It will be like in old times again!"

Sokka sat down on one of the five beds in the room and waited for Katara's healing. He smiled through gritted teeth. "Heh, heh, uh, yes. Exactly." At the same time, Katara bent water onto his nose. Bound up in her work, she made the swelling go away and was now working on the broken bone. Mai was sitting next to Sokka and watched Katara do her work.

"OWW!" Sokka yelped when Katara set the bone right in his nose. "THAT HURT!"

"Hold still, Sokka! Or do you want your nose to heal crooked?"

What the young warrior mumbled next was hard to understand. "I swear … heal crooked … kill … Azula …"

Katara's eyes widened and she stared at her brother. "What did you just say?"

"I, ugh, nothing interesting." Sokka seemed to shrink under the stare of his sister.

"AZULA?!" The waterbender screamed stridently. "AZULA DID THIS?!"

Sokka jumped to his feet waved his hands. "No! No! Please be quiet, Katara!"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO STAY CALM WHEN I KNOW THAT ONE OF THE MOST – IF NOT THE MOST – DANGEROUS FIREBENDER ESCAPED FROM PRISON?! AND LET'S NOT FORGET THAT SHE'S _CRAZY_!"

"Katara, she didn't escape." Mai said flatly.

"I freed her," Zuko said, entering the room. "And now please be quiet, Katara. I don't want anyone to know she's with us."

"SHE'S WHAAAAT!" Zuko winced because of her piercing scream and she quickly remembered his please. In a little quieter voice, she continued. "Zuko are you _insane_? Look what she's done!" She pointed at Sokka.

"Well, this only happened because I didn't pay much attention," Sokka defended (himself) and Katara palmed her forehead.

"Just calm down, Katara. It was an accident, wasn't it, Sokka?" Zuko said and shot the young warrior a warning glance.

"Ahh, y-yes, sure," Sokka muttered, receiving a dig from Mai's elbow.

Katara groaned and shook her head. "Where is she now?"

"She's on the airship." Zuko saw the shattered look on her face and quickly added: "She's guarded of course. Only for tonight, though."

"No, no, no, no, no, please don't tell me she's coming _along with us on Appa_." She shook her head violently. "No, Zuko, I can't allow that. What if she hurts anyone of you?"

"Yes, she is coming along with us. Katara, she's trying to behave herself and I've got her under control."

"Well, trying is not enough, Zuko! And she doesn't even have herself under control, so I doubt you will, too!"

"Give her at least a chance!"

"We saw, what happened on the day of the comet! She shot you with lightning! If it were not for me, you would be dead! She wanted to kill you!"

"I was willing to take her life, too!" Zuko yelled at his friend. "It was _war, _Katara!"

Katara scowled. "I swear if she touches any of you again, I'll make her regret it." Her hard look changed into a motherly one. "I don't want anyone of you to get hurt."

"Fine by me." Zuko shrugged and walked over to his bed.

"Katara," Sokka took his sister's hands and looked her in the eye, "Give her another chance. For Zuko. She's changing. Because if she weren't I would possibly be dead now and not walking around with a broken nose. At least she's not _thaaat_ evil anymore."

Katara saw the sincerity in her brother's eyes and finally decided she would give the princess a chance. She'd seen what had happened after she defeated Azula. The girl had screamed and cried and had been totally out of her mind. Katara had felt sad for her, but it didn't change the fact that she'd almost accomplished to take Aang and Zuko away from her. And that wasn't something she could forgive that easily. But could someone like her change? She would keep an eye on Azula. If the princess tries something nasty, she would fight and defeat her. Again. And this time, she wouldn't feel sorry.

Finally, she nodded. "Okay, fine. But that doesn't mean I like it."

"Thank you, Katara. Anyways, we'll leave in the morning."

"I know, I know."

She stalked out of the boy's room, followed by Mai, who gave her boyfriend a good night kiss before leaving and Zuko extinguished the oil-lamp with a wave of his hand.

No one noticed the two Dai Li agents disappearing in the dark.

* * *

Azula sat in her cabin and tried not to fidget. She'd been in this airship for the whole day. And while her brother was probably sleeping in a nice soft and cuddly bed, she was watched by two stupid guards. Zuko had called in for a minute, telling her they would stay for the night, but Azula had already assumed he would leave her high and dry in this damned airship with _guards_. And if it was only for a night, she didn't like it. At least she was allowed to leave her cabin … with guards.

Azula was still hungry and decided to get some food from the airship's canteen. She opened the door and told the guards her intention.

When she arrived on deck, she breathed in the fresh air and looked up to the stars. A considerable number of stars were shining brightly in the sky.

Never before she'd spent time to just look up to the stars and somehow it made her feel … free. All her life she'd been busy with training, fighting and leading people. She'd spent her whole life trying to impress her father. And where did it take her? What was her prize? Nothing. She was left with nothing. The princess grit her teeth.

_What happened to me? I can't give up now. I'm not the type of person who's that easy to defeat._

Father was gone and he wasn't going to come back. Like Zuko said, she was free of him now. She didn't know whether she should be happy and cheer or she should fall to her knees and cry. But maybe, she was just going to move on. Zuko was giving her a second chance to start again. She would use it. She would fight. But not for Zuko. Not for father and at least for mother. This time, she would fight for herself.

For the first time in awhile she felt hope. Hope, that her life was going to go upwards.

Suddenly she smelled something scorched. The smell was strong in the air and one of the guards sniffed to find it's source. Azula herself was curious, too. It didn't smell like burnt food … it was something different, strange. The source was exposed to be a small barrel and the guards shared baffled looks and frowned at Azula, who just shrugged.

"I didn't put that there!"

"What shall we do with it?" One of the guards asked her.

"Why do you ask me?"

The guardsman wanted to respond, but then the other one touched the barrel and all three of them had their eyes fixated on the little thing.

The next moment, the barrel blew up, releasing searing flames in every direction. The guard, standing in front of her was flung backwards and crashed into her, but shielded her from the explosion. Before Azula could react or even think, there was another explosion and then another and another, the released flames always triggering the next blow up.

Azula was slung into the air, but she couldn't see, couldn't realize what was happening. She landed hard and sharp pain shot through her left leg. Azula kept rolling down a hill, away from the airship and the still continuing explosions. She hit her head on something hard and then came to a stop. Finally in idle state, she felt the caustic pain on her arms, legs and everywhere.

She tried to move, but couldn't. She opened her eyes and tried to figure out where she was, but blood was running into her eyes and her vision was already darkening.

_No! It can't end like this! I'm not ready! Not now!_

But the pain was getting intense and eventually Azula let herself slip away into darkness.

* * *

Two shadows scurried through the dark hallways and only stopped to hide behind the walls, when guards passed by. Then they jumped to the walls and climbed along them. Finally, it seemed the shadows reached their destination. There was the quiet sound of rustling keys and then the cell door swung open. One of the men went inside, while the other stood guard, looking out for danger.

The prisoner, who sat cross-legged on the metallic floor with long, messy hair, smiled, showing a row of white teeth. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be meditating.

"I was wondering if you would ever return. I think it's been more than a month since your last visit." His voice was calm and he slowly opened his intelligent green eyes.

"You ordered us to come back when something useful, which could be applied to get Ba Sing Se under our control again, happens."

"So, I guess you have something interesting to report."

"The princess is out of the asylum and is in Ba Sing Se with the Fire Lord and the Avatar right now," the Dai Li agent said.

Long Feng smile grew. "That's indeed a perfect opportunity. And you still came back here to tell me? I thought you ran over to that girl."

The agent stood there with a blank stare. "She banished us. She made it clear she didn't want us around. We're not serving her anymore.

"After the war some of us came back to Ba Sing Se. We hid in the shadows in hope to get our rightful leader back one day," the Dai Li agent said, bowing his head. "The Dai Li is waiting for your return."

Long Feng stroke his long grown beard, smirking. "You are right. I am the rightful leader. Now, explain the situation to me."

"From what we've heard, the princess is in Ba Sing Se with the Fire Lord. They're searching for their mother, but the Fire Lord made it clear he doesn't want anyone to know about their mission or about the princess' presence."

"No one knows, huh? Not even the Earth King?"

"No one."

"I bet our king would love to know the conqueror of Ba Sing Se has returned." The former Head of the Dai Li smirked at the thought. "I want you to spread some rumors about the Fire Princess' escape and the threat she represents for this lovely city.

Once people know, everything will be thrown into turmoil. That's when we strike."

"What about the princess? The Fire Lord and his friends will leave in the morning."

"Let her go. She's too powerful for you to capture, but gather some other agents and keep an eye on her. Once this city is ours again, I'll make her pay for what she did to the Dai Li."

"We'll be back once the rumors are spread, Long Feng." The agent nodded, locked the cell door and both dashed away without making a sound.

* * *

**I'm sorry if the scene with the exploding airship wasn't detailed enough, but it's told from Azula's perspective and yeah, at that moment, it all goes far too fast for her.**

**Anyways, I hope you liked it. Tell me what you think and leave a review! :)  
**


	8. Chapter 7: Lost

**Good evening, everyone ;)**

**Ah, this update took me a little longer, because it was kinda difficult to write. I hope I got it right in the end ;) But it's shorter than usual. I decided to split the original Chapter 7 into two parts because it would have gotten too long ;) **

**School's started and it's exam time, so I'm under some stress now :/ Since the chapters are going to be a little shorter, I'll try to update regularly. No promises though.  
**

**Oh and omg(!), the new cover of The Search Part 2 comic was released like 3 weeks ago or so and it looks like the Gaang and the Royal Siblings are lost in a mysterious forest. Lol. Maybe it's called the _Huo Li _forest? :D**

**Anyways, enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Zuko jumped out of the bed, when the first quake occurred. With a flick of his wrist he lighted the oil lamp and saw that Sokka was awake, too. Aang still wasn't there, so he must still be talking with King Kuai.

"What the hell just happened?!" Another roar sounded, followed by light tremble. Fear shot through Zuko and he grabbed his coat and stumbled out of the room into the hallway, slipping on his clothes while he ran out. There he met Katara and Mai, who both looked at Zuko with wide and shocked eyes. Katara's hair was ruffled and Mai had dark rings under her eyes, proving she just had been rudely awakened.

"What's going on!?" Katara shouted, but Zuko had no time to waste. Multiple explosions followed and he forced himself to run faster towards the palaces landing platforms, his friends right after him. There was great turmoil in the corridors. Servants were already hurrying around with water jugs in their hands, while guards shouted commands and dashed out of the palace to the landing-place for air balloons and airships.

Yes, the explosions were definitely coming from there. While he raced out of the palace, his thoughts wandered to his sister. Zuko was praying that Azula didn't have anything to do with this mess.

_I hope, nothing's happened to her._

Fear worked quickly through him and when he arrived to look at the landing platform, the happenings made him freeze up. His airship was burning and guards of the Earth Kingdom were already helping members of the crew to escape. He swallowed hard, when he saw soot covered people stumble out of the airship, coughing badly. It only took him seconds to realize, that Azula wasn't among them.

"NO!" Zuko yelled and sprinted towards the burning airship. The explosions had stopped, but everywhere was fire and smoke.

"Zuko! No! This thing is about to blow up!" Katara shouted, but Zuko ignored the warning and kept running. He then jumped and propelled himself up by releasing a blast of flames towards the ground. He landed on deck and rolled over his shoulder to come up to his feet.

"AZULA!" No answer came and he jumped through flames, generating fire of his own to protect him from getting burned. Finally, he managed to go below and there he shouted his sister's name again. He coughed, his lungs were filling with the poisonous fume. Sweat was already trickling down his back, but he couldn't stop. He had to find his sister! Zuko arrived at Azula's cabin and kicked the door open. His eyes wandered through the small room, checking for any signs of life.

_She's not here! No!_

Another bout of coughing forced him to his knees. His eyes were tearing, both because of the stinging smoke and the fact that his sister was probably dead.

He staggered to his feet again and leaned heavily against the wall. He couldn't see much, the corridors were full with black smoke and Zuko waved his hands, gasping for breath. Suddenly he was overcome by the realization that he wouldn't be able to make it out of the airship in time. He tried to take a step, but his legs wouldn't obey him anymore and Zuko dropped to his hands and knees.

_I'm sorry, Azula. _

Then a blast of air rushed through the corridors and the fume was gone. The gusts continued and a hand grabbed a stunned Zuko and forced him to his feet. It was Aang and his eyes and tattoos were glowing. In amazing speed, the Avatar dragged the half unconscious Fire Lord through the corridors and within seconds, they were back on deck. By means of the Avatar State, Aang had created an incredible tornado around the airship, which quenched the flames. Aang put Zuko's arm around his own shoulder and propelled them both up, out of danger. They landed near the edge of the landing platform and the Avatar's glowing stopped and the tornado faded.

Zuko dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Mai, Katara and Sokka instantly rushed over to their friends and hugged them, checking if they were okay. Zuko received a few burns, but nothing Katara couldn't heal.

"Zuko, how could you be so foolish!" Mai shouted, embracing her boyfriend tightly. "You could be dead." It came out in a whisper, but Zuko noticed her voice was shaking. He'd scared her to death.

"Yeah man, that was pretty dumb," Sokka added, but smiled at his friend. "You should be happy that your friend happens to be the Avatar! He even managed to keep your airship from blowing up!" Sokka grinned and pointed at Aang, who walked to the edge of the landing platform, looking down the hillside to the city of Ba Sing Se. He sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head gently. Katara knelt in front of Zuko and bent water onto his wounds, making the fresh burns fade. During the whole healing process, Mai stayed at Zuko's side, who kept his eyes shut and had his hand placed on the bridge of his nose.

"What's wrong?" Katara questioned.

It took the young Fire Lord some time to gather enough strength to answer.

"She wasn't there," Zuko answered, whispering. "She's dead."

Katara's eyes widened, but she didn't seem to understand. "Who?"

Mai understood immediately and hugged her boyfriend even tighter with concern in her eyes. "I don't think Azula would allow herself to die because of a stupid explosion."

But it didn't help. Zuko knew she was dead and he had to pull himself together not to burst into tears. He'd failed her. It was his fault that she was dead. He'd thought things would get better now. He'd thought that he would finally get along with his sister, but now his hope was smashed within this short period of time. And it was his fault. He had forced her to stay in the airship and Zuko knew that he would never be able to forgive himself for that.

Zuko gasped and pulled away from Mai's embrace. With a shout of rage and desperation, he grabbed the nearest stone and threw it with all his remaining strength down the slope into the woods.

At first, Katara looked at Zuko with sympathy, but then she frowned. "Azula is possibly the most powerful firebender on earth. Maybe it was _her_, who'd set the airship on fire. A distraction so she can escape."

Zuko stood up, his features distorted with fury.

"You can't be serious! I know you hated her and I bet you're happy she's dead! She might have done terrible things and I don't like her, but she's still my sister!" With these words Zuko jumped over the landing platform's edge and landed on his feet on the soil, blowing up dust. Without looking back to his friends, he slid down the hillside and disappeared behind trees, while Katara just stared after him with a shocked expression on her face.

"Katara, Azula lost her bending somehow," Aang explained sadly. "She wasn't among the rescued people. There's no way she could have survived this without her firebending."

"Oh god, what did I do," Katara realized, tears running down her face and then she also jumped into the dirt and started sprinting after Zuko, trying to catch up with him.

Mai, Sokka and Aang looked after Katara in silence and Mai sighed. "Guys, I'm gonna check on the crew. The guards might need a hand and maybe some of the survivors have seen Azula. I won't be able to fall asleep now, anyway." With that, the girl turned and made her way to the palace, where all the injured had been taken to.

Aang just shook his head and blinked. "I've failed, Sokka. I promised Iroh to help Azula and I've failed."

Sokka was pondering about something and didn't answer.

"Sokka?"

"Aang are you sure Azula can't bend anymore?"

"I – I don't know, but recording to Zuko -"

"Maybe Katara's right. Maybe Azula was able to bend the whole time and once we were out of the Fire Nation and she was alone, she took the opportunity to escape."

"Are you in earnest? She was really worried about it, she even asked Zuko for advice! And that's definitely saying something! I don't think even Azula is _that good_ at acting and lying."

"No, Aang, see … I'm just thinking logically. Azula wasn't there, she must have set the thing on fire and then jumped off the airship or something."

"And how do you explain the explosions, huh? You can't do that just with bending. There must have been bombs."

"Yeah, and the bombs came out of thin air, didn't they?" Sokka snapped sarcastically. "There is no way the bombs could get on the airship and it wasn't blown up from the outside as you can see!"

"Sokka, you-"

"Ugh, okay, Aang, I got it. But we should be careful from now on. I don't think the crazy princess is dead. I still think she is hand in glove with the resistance group."

"Stop it Sokka!" Aang shouted, annoyed. "You're not helping!"

"At least she didn't die in my theory," Sokka said, holding his hands up and trying to ease the tension.

Aang shook his head. "It's not the right time for jokes, Sokka."

Then he hit the road to search for Katara and Zuko.

**O.o.O.o.O**

"Zuko?" Katara called out. She'd tried to follow him, but somehow lost his trail. She must have searched for nearly an hour and she'd almost climbed all the way down to the city and still there was no sign of Zuko, which left Katara feeling even more guilty. She bit her lip. She shouldn't have said something like that. Of course she didn't like Azula at all, but that she died … wasn't what Katara had wanted for her. And at least for Zuko.

Now she was standing in the dirt on the hillside, looking around to see nothing but stones, grass and trees. This was a waste of time, she would have to wait for Zuko to come back.

She sighed and began to walk up, back to the airship. Sooner or later Zuko would have to come back. What was she going to say to him then? Zuko must be utterly devastated after tonight's events. How the hell was she going to talk to him? These thoughts just wouldn't get out of her head anymore, giving her a bad headache.

When she was half the way back to the top, broken branches and weird traces on the soil caught her eye. Could Zuko have left this trace? No, it looked like something big had rolled down the hill. Katara hesitated. Should she have a closer look or should she ignore the traces and continue walking?

Her curiosity won over and so she slowly followed the track, but froze, when she discovered a stone with dark liquid on it. In horror, she realized it was blood, sending chills down her spine. Cold sweat was forming on her forehead and she now approached even slower, already expecting the worst. She should go with her gut and turn around immediately, forgetting what she'd seen. But instead, she kept going. She opened the cap of her water reservoir, readying herself to fight any danger anytime. She continued walking, the branches crackling under her weight, until she saw something lying under a tree. No, someone. Katara gasped and rushed over to the lying figure, forgetting any danger at once.

The person was lying on the stomach and the clothes were tattered and burnt. It was a girl and she had long black hair...

_No, it can't be …_

It was Azula. And she was in bad shape. Her skin was bruised and splinted in many places and since her left leg was cocked in a weird angle it had to be broken. The burns on her arms looked bad and would probably scar if Katara wouldn't heal them. She turned the girl around and gasped when she saw her bloodied face. Azula must have hit her head on the stone Katara had passed before and the gaping wound looked serious and was probably life-endangering, considering how much blood she'd lost.

Here Katara was, bent over the limp form of Princess Azula. This girl in front of her was one of the cruelest people alive, so why don't leave her to die here? She knew the princess wouldn't survive due to the gash on her head, where blood was literally streaming out. But Katara immediately abandoned her gloomy thoughts. How could she even think of something like that?

Katara could never let her die, even if she disliked the princess, she was still a human being and most importantly, she was Zuko's sister and Katara wouldn't be able to face Zuko ever again if she left Azula to die. She'd seen how hurt Zuko had been. He does care for his sister, even if she is evil.

Katara didn't waste any more time. Instead, she bent the water out of her reservoir onto the princess' head. She put all her power into her bending and the water began to glow in a pleasant shade of blue. After a few minutes, she was satisfied with her result. Katara overlooked Azula's other injuries. She had used all her water on the angry wound on Azula's head, so she swiped her hands through the air, remembering what the old and creepy waterbender Hama once taught her. With a swift move, she bended the water in the air into her palms. But unfortunately the air was dry and there wasn't enough to heal Azula's leg and the burns properly, so she decided she would finish it back in the palace.

But a further problem was already waiting for her with open arms. How was she going to get back? She couldn't leave Azula here and come back later with backup. Azula had already been too long in the cold of the night and her residual wounds needed medical attention urgently.

_I can't carry her the whole hill up! _

She had to try though and so she heaved Azula carefully on her back. The girl was lighter than expected and Katara noticed how much thinner the fallen princess was.

Katara bit her lip and looked up to the sliver of the moon. She silently prayed, that it wouldn't only giver her waterbending more strength, but her legs, too.

* * *

**Review ... please? :))**


	9. Chapter 8: Childhood Problems

**Damn, thank you so much for all the reviews! They made me smile, laugh and think :) It makes me so happy to know that people actually like this. For all the grammar mistakes, I can't do anything else but say sorry. That's the best I can do :/ (I actually edited the prologue and chapter 1 a few weeks ago because I found a lot of grammar mistakes in them :D I hope that means I improved a bit hehe) But, I think I need a beta. Really, it would be awesome to have someone helping me out with correcting all mistakes! So, if anyone is interested, PM me! The quality of the chapters would improve A LOT!  
**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

_Sitting on the green grass under a tree, Mai was reading in her schoolbook 'Bloodline Of The Royal Family', when a figure cast a shadow on it. Slightly annoyed about the disturbance, Mai looked up and saw two girls standing before her. They looked to be like about the same age as herself, maybe a little younger. But definitely not older than seven years. The one standing directly in front of her with arms crossed had a curious look on the face. Her black hair was tied into a perfect topknot and the spring's fresh breeze played with the girl's bangs. Behind her stood another girl, who had braided her long, brown hair and was wearing a big smile. Maybe the brightest one Mai had ever seen. They were both dressed in the red and black robes of the Royal Academy's school uniform._

"_What are you doing?" The girl with the bangs asked, her intelligent amber eyes were watching her with curiosity.  
_

_Mai wasn't sure what to say. Was that girl blind? She was studying for school and she truly didn't want to be disturbed now. _

"_I'm trying to memorize all the important facts about 'The Royal Family's Bloodline'," Mai answered, holding up the book for the other girl to see. Then she went back to reading, ignoring the two girls completely. _

_The girl didn't seem to get angry. Instead, she held out her hand. _

"_I want to take a look at it."_

_Mai narrowed her eyes at the girl. Who the hell did she think she was? Was she the Fire Lord to order her around like that? No!_

"_Go away, I don't have time now," Mai snapped. _

_Ignoring what Mai had said, the girl smirked at her."I happen to know a lot about Sozin's bloodline."_

"_Lucky you."_

"_You might say that."_

_This pointless conversation was getting on Mai's nerves and she eventually snapped the book shut and stood up. _

"_Fine, tell me now. What do you want?"_

_The girl with the bangs only shrugged and a hand wandered to her hair, playing with the bangs. "We saw you sitting under the tree all alone, so we decided to ask you if you want to play hide and seek with us. It's more fun with three players."_

_Mai sighed. Didn't that girl understand anything? _

"_I told you that I'm studying. That's why I'm alone here."_

_The girl shook her head. "No, you're lying to me. You're always sitting here alone during recess."_

_That was true, but it wasn't because no one wanted to play with her, no, the real reason was that Mai didn't want anyone to play with her. She just didn't have the time. Her parents told her she had to be the best in class because it would help her father to stand in better light concerning his political career. _

"_I'm Azula by the way," the girl with the bangs said and then pointed at the other one next to her. "And that's Ty Lee." _

"_Hiiii!" Ty Lee shouted and waved her hand. "Nice to meet you! What's your name?"_

_Mai eyed the two girls in front of her. Maybe it would be good to have some friends here. Only reading and studying was getting boring. And these two seemed interesting._

"_My name's Mai," she said hesitantly. _

"_So, you wanna play with us? Since you've read all recess, I think you deserve a short break, don't you?" The girl called Azula said. _

"_Why not," Mai mumbled and placed the book back into her school bag. _

"_I start counting!" Ty Lee exclaimed and covered her eyes with her hands._

_Azula instantly reached forward and grabbed Mai by her wrist and they both ran away to hide from Ty Lee. _

_..._

Mai was lying in her bed, staring up to the ceiling. She came back here after she questioned some of the crew about Azula's whereabouts. They told her no one had seen her because she'd stayed in her cabin the whole time. Without a helpful answer, Mai eventually decided she should possibly get some more sleep, but she soon found out that she couldn't. Her mind was being beset with scattered thoughts. Where was Zuko? He must be going through hell now and Mai wasn't there to stand by his side. She knew he needed some time for himself and that was something she would have to respect. She felt her heart tighten in sadness, surprising herself in doing so.

_Azula is gone. Azula is dead. _

She repeated these words again and again, but she just couldn't believe Azula wasn't there anymore.

Why did she feel sad about it? She felt nothing for Azula. No love, no hate. Just … nothing.

Her 'friend' just used her and Ty Lee to catch Zuko and the Avatar. She took advantage of them to reach her own goals!

But Mai had to admit that they'd spent some good times together, too. The princess made her life much more interesting. And only because of her, Mai and Zuko came together.

When they were children, everything had been alright. Mai remembered her, Ty Lee and Azula's time at the Royal Academy for girls. She smiled when she thought about how they became friends. Azula and Ty Lee had shown up out of nowhere and asked Mai to play with them. At first she hadn't known it was Princess Azula she was having fun with, but eventually Azula told her. She couldn't tell how surprised and excited she had been. From all the girls, who were at the Royal Academy that time, Azula had chosen her and Ty Lee. Why? She still didn't know.

From then on, her parents were respected by the other nobles. Not everyone's daughter was best friends with the Fire Nation Princess. At that time, Mai had been happy. Happy for the first time in her life. They'd spent lazy afternoons together, talking, training and studying. They had no secrets from each other. Yes, it definitely had been a good time. But everything good has to come to an end, hasn't it?

"_Look what I can do!" Ty Lee exclaimed and did a backflip, landing in a handstand._

_Mai clapped her hands listlessly and Azula nodded slowly, while they watched Ty Lee doing her acrobatics for the hundredth time._

_It had been two years since they've met and today, the three of them were celebrating Azula's 8th birthday. They were in the royal courtyard, lounging in the warm sun of early autumn. But here in the capital of the Fire Nation it always felt like summer. The sun was always shining and it was always warm. Birds were singing and dabbling in the fountain._

_These beautiful moments where all of them were together were getting more rare with every day that passed. Azula spent a lot of time practicing her firebending with the old and scary twins, Li and Lo. But today was an exception of course. Azula didn't like to throw big parties. She only wanted to spend some time with her two best friends. _

_Out of the corner of her eye, Mai saw Zuko sitting at the turtle duck's pond with his mother, Princess Ursa. She turned her head towards them and watched the boy feeding the tiny animals with bread crumbs. _

He's cute, _she thought and smiled a little. _

"_Who are you looking at?" Mai turned to see Azula narrowing her eyes at her brother and mother. "Even on my birthday, my mom spends more time with Zuko than with me." There was bitterness in her voice, but her expression instantly changed into a hard one and her hands balled up into fists. From the first day Mai knew there wasn't much sympathy between the siblings. They always fought and Azula could be very mean and snappy to her brother. Mai didn't understand why. Azula normally wasn't that cruel.  
_

"_Watch this!" She yelled, loud enough to attract Ursa and Zuko's attention. She got into a firebending stance and created a small fireball between her palms. She spun around in the garden, the fire dancing around her in bright orange. Mai followed every move of the princess. She deeply respected the great skill of her friend. _

_When Azula was finally out of breath, she came to a halt and grinned at her friends. Ty Lee cheered loudly and hugged Azula. "One day, you're going to be the greatest firebender alive!" _

_Azula nodded and then hesitantly looked over her shoulder to where her mother and brother had sat. The disappointment was written into the young princess' face when she saw that they both had left. _

"_Well done, my child."_

_Mai and her friends spun around to see Prince Ozai walking toward them. A cold shiver ran down Mai's spine. She knew he didn't like her and Ty Lee because he thought they only distracted his daughter from her training. _

"_I've got a little present for you, Azula. Since your bending has increased this much, I decided to train you privately in my free time."_

_Mai and Ty Lee's mouths dropped open at this and they both stared at Azula, who looked at her father with wide eyes. _

"_Th-Thank you, Father." She bowed her head._

"_I expect you in the training rooms in a few minutes, Azula. Tell them both to leave immediately."Ozai glared at Mai and Ty Lee and turned to vanish into the building. _

_Azula sighed and tilted her head. "Looks like we won't be able to see each other that often anymore."_

_The three girls just stood there in silence, averting each other's eyes, until Ty Lee decided to break it. _

"_**No matter what happens, we're always going to be best friends!**" she exclaimed happily and pulled Mai and Azula into a tight hug. It squeezed the air out of Mai's lungs and she gasped. Just as Mai thought she and Azula were going to be hugged to death, she was released and couldn't help but sigh in relief. _

"_Forever?" Azula asked, smiling slightly. _

"_Forever," Mai responded, without knowing that their happy childhood friendship was already crackling. _

_..._

Mai shook her head. She'd liked the old Azula. They'd been best friends. They'd wanted to stay friends for the rest of their lives. And look where they were now. Ty Lee was on Kyoshi Island with her new friends and Azula was dead. Mai felt a terrible emotion build up in her throat.

_No, I never cry! How can I be so touchy!_

Mai closed her eyes and banned Azula and Ty Lee from her thoughts. _Let bygones be bygones, _she said to herself, _let bygones be bygones. _

* * *

Aang was in the woods, searching for his two friends. The sun was already about to rise and no one had gotten much sleep. Dark rings were forming under the boy's eyes and his movements were getting slower and stiffer with every step.

_I wish I would have taken my glider with me!_

Aang was so tired, it was a fight not to lay down for a minute and sleep. The Avatar State had required a lot of strength, but he had to keep on walking.

Suddenly, he heard crackles of twigs when something heavy fell onto them, followed by a grunt. Aang airbended himself into the air and landed on a nearby tree to get an overlook over the whole area. They were on the hillside of the palace, which led down to the city of Ba Sing Se, but he couldn't find anything unusual.

He heard the groaning again and detected the source of the sound. He wasn't prepared for what he saw. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, making sure his mind wasn't playing any tricks on him. Katara was lying on the ground, Azula on top of her. Aang felt so happy and relieved for a moment. Katara must have found Azula in the woods, which means she was ok … was she?

Katara moaned again and Aang's attention turned towards her. "Katara!"

He jumped from tree to tree and finally landed lightly in front of the girls.

"Are you ok?" Aang wanted to help is girlfriend up, but stopped, when he saw Azula more clearly. She was unconscious and covered in injuries. Without hesitation, he carefully lifted the broken princess up, but Katara still wasn't able to stand up.

"Aang, I've sprained my ankle," Katara said, pain lending her words an edge. "I don't think I can walk, but we need to get to the palace, she's hurt."

Aang carried Azula on his back and offered Katara a hand. "Take hold on my waist and I'll airbend us out of here."

Katara took his hand and swung one arm around his neck, the other was slung around his waist.

"You have to hold on tightly, I've got to hold Azula."

"Let's go."

Aang prepared himself for the physical effort he would have to perform. Then, he inhaled as much air as possible and blew it all toward the ground and the weird-looking group was lifted up into the air. Aang twisted and swung his legs, creating an air roller and he jumped on it. Then, they stormed up the hill, back to the palace.

**O.o.O.o.O**

Sokka had helped the guards and servants to establish order on the landing platform. Now, he was totally exhausted and walking back to his own room to get some sleep. He yawned and wanted to open the door, but found out it was locked.

"Hey! Whoever is in there! This ... is not cool!"

The lock clicked and he pushed the door open and met Aang's gray eyes.

"Hey Sokka. Good timing, we just arrived here, too." The young Avatar looked tired and stepped aside, gesturing Sokka to come in.

When Sokka saw the scene in front of him, he froze. Katara was hunched over an unconscious Azula, who was lying on the bed. Aang and Katara looked disheveled and exhausted, but Azula looked even worse.

Aang quickly closed and locked the door and walked back to the bed where Azula was lying on.

"Guys, what the hell happened?" Sokka shouted and sat down on his bed.

"Shush, Sokka!" Katara hissed and started to take off Azula's tattered clothes.

"Guys, can you please stop watching while I take care of her?" Katara said and bended water out of the pot next to her, putting the water on Azula's burnt and bruised body, where it started glowing. Katara continued her work without losing another word.

Sokka noticed her bandaged ankle and watched his sister with concern. Aang and Sokka both sat down on Sokka's bed and turned around, facing the wall. Sokka raised an eyebrow at Aang and the young monk finally sighed and told Sokka their story, leaving him baffled.

"So it wasn't Azula, who blew up the airship," Sokka murmured.

"No, genius, obviously not," Katara snorted and bended the remaining water to her sprained ankle. Once she was finished, she put it back into the pot. Beads of sweat have formed on her forehead, but she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve. She quickly dressed Azula with simple Earth Kingdom clothes and allowed the boys to turn around.

"Done. She'll be fine. The burns won't scar and her leg will be ok in a few days."

"I hope so," Aang mumbled, eyes locked on the floor.

"Whoever bombed the airship wanted to kill us," Sokka said, pondering. "Maybe Azula saw those responsible. But I think I already know, who could have done it."

"I just hope Zuko's fine," Katara's face dropped. "I didn't mean to hurt him with my words earlier."

* * *

**Please review! (And don't forget to PM me if you want to be my beta :)! )**


	10. Chapter 9: Wanted

**Hello!**

**So the graphic novel "The Search - Part 1" finally came out and it was awesome :3 Mike said on his blog that it was originally planned as an animated TV movie, but Nickelodeon wasn't interested, so they dropped the idea ****and ordered LoK Book2 instead****. I'm kinda disappointed by Nick and I hope they're going to make one after The Legend Of Korra :D**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

The traveling bag was thrown onto Darzon's desk, right next to where his head was resting, making him jump awake.

_Oh no, I fell asleep while working again. _

He dazedly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned. With a click of his fingers, the oil lamp on his desk lightened up. He blinked a few times and saw a figure standing in the room, looking out of the window. He immediately recognized the person and a big smile made its way to his face. Then he took a look at the traveling bag, raising his brows.

"What do I want with that?" Darzon asked, looking at his brother, who was watching the rising sun.

"We're going to the Earth Kingdom, lil' twin brother," Zhasan announced and turned, his intelligent green eyes resting on his brother. "I'm happy to see you too, by the way," Zhasan added and smiled friendly.

Darzon chuckled and stood up to hug his brother. They were twins, but they didn't look the same. Zhasan had green eyes, just like their father. Darzon's orbs were amber. Zhasan's short brown hair was hanging freely, while Darzon had his black hair tied together in a topknot. But like most of Fire Nation people, they both had pale skin.

"You come home in the middle of the night after two weeks, wake me up and then tell me we're going to the Earth Kingdom?"

"It sounds stupid if you say it like that, but yes actually," Zhasan laughed, showing a row of white teeth. "And look, the sun is already rising."

Darzon grinned at his brother and winced when pain shot through his broken nose.

"Ah, yeah, I already wanted to ask you ... what happened there?" Zhasan eyed the purple swollen nose with concern.

"Er … I, uh, got involved into a fight." Darzon averted his eyes and looked to his feet.

"Oh, that's a big old lie right there!" Zhasan smirked. "So, what really happened?"

Darzon painfully reminisced about the day Princess Azula came by and how she broke his nose. Darzon felt too embarrassed to tell his brother the truth, but Zhasan had always been good at detecting his lies. He had no choice.

"Well, um, Princess Azula paid me a visit. Just like you said she would," Darzon mumbled, running a hand through his brown hair. Zhasan's eyes lightened up, but he kept his face neutral.

Darzon remembered the day when Zhasan came back after one of his longer travels and brought him a red diamond in which a mysterious symbol was carved into. He told him that Darzon had to make a ring out of it because Princess Azula would show up soon to get it. Darzon was wondering how Zhasan knew that the princess would come. From all he's heard, she was sent to an institution due to her mental instability. But when he had asked his brother that question, Zhasan had simply answered, "All in good time, brother. All in good time." Zhasan forbid him to tell anyone. No one was allowed to know.

"So I believe you gave her the ring?" Zhasan asked rhetorically. He started walking around in the room, eying all the jewels Darzon had made.

"Well, I didn't really 'give' her the ring, she actually stole it, after breaking my nose and threatening to kill me!"

"Do you remember the old times at the Royal Academy for boys? We always did leg-ups on the wall, which separated us from the Academy for girls."

"How could I forget something like that? You were always standing on my shoulders and I never got to see any of the girls!" Darzon complained and Zhasan chuckled.

"Well, I got to spy on them and sometimes I saw Princess Azula practicing her bending in recess. It was like watching someone dance with fire." Zhasan paused and Darzon detected a glint in his brother's eyes. He knew his brother was wishing for the hundredth time that he was born with the ability to bend. "You know that she's one of the greatest firebenders in Fire Nation history," Zhasan continued. "Of course you didn't stand a chance against her fabulous blue flames and lightning."

Darzon blushed and looked away. "She … she actually bet me up without bending..."

Zhasan stared at him for a while and then burst out in laughter. Tears came to the young man's eyes and Darzon, still blushing, folded his arms and tried to look offended.

But Zhasan's laugh showed up to be contagious and soon Darzon was laughing along with his brother.

"Man, you can't imagine how much I've missed you, brother," Zhasan said with a smile after they both calmed down again.

"Yeah … I have to admit it was a bit boring without you," They both chuckled again and Zhasan walked over to Darzon's desk, picking up one of the jewels Darzon had been working on before falling asleep at the table. Zhasan turned the red cut gemstone in his hand and eyed it carefully.

"You're doing a great job with all this stuff, brother," he finally said, still not taking his eyes from the jewel. "May it be a normal gemstone or a priceless volcano diamond, you're turning everything into a masterpiece. You're much more talented than me. Father would be so proud of you."

Darzon swallowed at the mentioning of their father. It wasn't something he liked to talk about.

"This one isn't finished, but it looks like a person. Actually ... Oh, I think I know who this is."

Darzon began to blush and snapped the jewel away from his brother. "That … is non of your business!" He quickly let the gemstone slip into his coat's pocket.

Zhasan raised his brows, smirking, but decided to drop the subject.

"Anyways, get your stuff ready, our ship is leaving in a few hours, so hurry up, we have to leave!

That's going to be a great adventure you and I are going to have, brother!"

"But I can't leave! I've got work to do over here!" Darzon loved his little shop, but deep down in his heart, he wanted to go along with his brother and see the world. "Why do you want me to accompany you? You never took me with you before!"

"I promised you to take you onto one of my business travels some day, so here we go. Get your stuff ready."

Darzon had the feeling that Zhasan wasn't telling him the truth, but on their travel, he would have plenty of time to squeeze it out of his brother. It couldn't be something bad, though. He trusted Zhasan. He was his twin brother after all! They were born on the same day, but Zhasan has always been the one to protect him. Just like an older brother would.

With a smile on his lips, Darzon picked up the bag and started packing.

* * *

The sun has already risen when Zuko came storming back from his 'little trip' and told everyone they had to leave this place immediately. Katara sprinted towards her flustered friend and hugged him tightly.

"I'm so … so sorry, Zuko. I didn't mean to say what I did."

Zuko closed his eyes and a tear ran down his cheek. "I … I never thought I would feel so miserable about my sister's death. It is ... it is my fault." He hugged Katara back and didn't seem to want to let her go soon.

"About that," Katara gently pulled away from him and smiled, "we found someone in the woods." She stepped aside and Zuko's eyes widened as he saw his sister lying on the bed. Her chest moving up and down as she slowly inhaled and exhaled.

"A – Azula?!" Zuko screamed, half laughing and half crying. He embraced his still unconscious sister into a warm hug, but quickly noticed her new clothes and the bandaged leg.

"W – what happened?"

"I found her in the woods after I tried to catch up with you," Katara explained. "She was hurt. Pretty badly. But luckily, Aang found us and dragged us both back to the palace."

Aang saw the shocked look on the Fire Lord's face. "No, don't worry," he quickly added. "No one saw us. I smuggled them in."

Zuko laid his sleeping sister back on the bed and hugged both Katara and Aang, while Sokka stood there, feeling stupid.

"And I don't get a sweet hug, huh?"

Zuko, Katara and Aang all looked at Sokka and raised their eyebrows.

"Stop pouting and come over here, madam," Katara teased her big brother.

"No, that would be ridiculous," Sokka said, not moving from his place while Zuko palmed his forehead.

"Anyways," Katara continued, "Azula broke her leg, but I was able to set the bone." Zuko looked over to his sister with concern in his eyes. "She won't be able to walk properly for a while, so we have to stay here a little longer I guess."

"No! No way," Zuko exclaimed, "we really have to leave. I've had time to think and I came to the conclusion that it must have been an assault of the resistance group."

"I knew it! I already thought it had to be the rebels!" Sokka shouted, excited.

"But there's one thing I don't get … I thought they were on Azula's side?" Sokka asked.

Aang quickly nodded in agreement. "Yeah, why would they want to kill her?"

Zuko sighed and tried to explain, "First of all, Sokka, there's no 'on Azula's side' and second, they don't even know she's out of the asylum. So –"

Sokka's face lightened up and he seemed to understand. "Ahh... right. I forgot." Then his expression changed back into a confused look. "So what?"

"So," Zuko said slowly, sounding annoyed, "we have to get out of Ba Sing Se before they try to kill us again, you moron!" His sound level increased with every word and Zuko ended up shouting, throwing his arms into the air. "We'll leave _now_. No ifs, ands, or buts!"

"But I haven't slept at all!" Sokka complained.

"I said no- argh! Neither have I, okay?"

"I think that's a good idea," Katara said and nodded. "We shouldn't take the risk of being attacked again."

"Then I'll get Appa. You get our stuff ready." Aang strode out of the door.

"Fine, then I'll sleep on Appa," Sokka murmured, defeated.

"Wait!" Zuko shouted, but Aang was already gone.

"Where is Mai?" The blood left his face at the thought that the resistance group might have kidnapped her to extort him.

Sokka giggled. "She just went back to sleep after you all ran off. No need to worry, buddy." But then the young warrior scowled at Zuko. "Oh, and I don't appreciate you calling me a moron, Rage Lord."

**O.o.O.o.O**

Within half an hour, the group was ready to go. Katara went to get Mai, who could only stare at Azula with wide eyes. But her face didn't betray any emotions. Did she feel relieved that her former friend was alive?

They smuggled Azula out of the palace once again by avoiding any other person. It was a difficult task, for many servants and guards were still hurrying through the hallways.

Once they were out of sight, Aang petted Appa and hugged the air bison with a "Let's go buddy!" and crawled Momo behind the ears. Yes, he had definitely missed his two friends.

Once Azula was on Appa, they put a blanket over her and let her rest. Without another word to King Kuai or anyone else, Aang yelled: "Appa, yip, yip!" and they took off.

The morning sun was shining in a beautiful orange tone and a wave of weariness finally caught the group. Aang and Katara made themselves comfortable, cuddling into Appa's neck fur, while everyone else crawled under their blankets on Appa's saddle. Mai snuggled up to Zuko, who smiled slightly. The fact that the resistance group tried to kill him didn't bother him that much anymore. He couldn't believe that Azula was still alive and he inwardly thanked the universe for it.

* * *

"Dear Earth Kingdom citizens!" a man with gray hair and normal green robes shouted. He was standing in the middle of the streets of Ba Sing Se's inner ring, people gathered around him. "I guess you've all felt the quakes last night! Some of you might have seen the fire up there." The man pointed up the hill at the palace.

"It has been brought to my attention that the Fire Lord payed a visit to our King! And when the moon was at it's highest point and everyone was asleep, it all happened." He made a dramatic gesture with his hands and the people around him gasped and retreated with wide eyes.

"The Fire Lord's airship was set on fire and **BOOM!**" He shouted and more gasps of air left the stunned people's lips. "But who could do something like that? WHO?!

"I'll tell you, people. It was the Fire Nation's former princess Azula! Some of you may know her as the conqueror of Ba Sing Se! She has returned to kill her brother, Fire Lord Zuko! She-"

A terrified shriek cut him off and the man turned his head to look for its source. It was a woman, who stared at him in shock, her hands clutching her tiny shopping bag.

He smiled at her and lifted a hand. "Just calm down Miss, save your breath for later because it gets even more terrible."

He coughed slightly and looked around. "Where were I? Ah, yes, the Fire Nation's former princess returned to Ba Sing Se and is hiding in the shadows somewhere." He said, his speech regaining in speed and volume, making all the people feel insecure. "She might be watching us right now!"

People started to look around in horror, looking for a terrifying princess who could possibly jump out of any bush at any time.

"Fire Lord Zuko was able to escape, but killing her brother wasn't the only plan she had … What I am trying to say, is … SHE HAS RETURNED TO GET REVENGE ON ALL OF US! HER PLAN IS TO OVERTHROW BA SING SE ONCE AGAIN!"

The crowd was staring at him in shock. That wasn't the reaction he wanted.

"Miss, you can scream now," he said to the woman with the shopping bag. And then she shrieked and everyone else panicked and started shouting, too. Suddenly there was great turmoil on the streets and people started running around in circles and bumping into each other.

Finally satisfied, the man turned around the corner of the next house and then walked down the dark alley. He then turned left and then came to a deadlock.

"Done. Now give me the rest of my payment," he said and held out the hand to nothing. Suddenly two men, wearing green robes and hats, approached him. One of them smiled.

"Good work and don't worry, you'll get your payment."

"I want it _now. _We had a deal!" One of the Dai Li agent grunted and stepped forward to the man.

"Fine." And then before the man could react, the Dai Li agent had wrapped his hands around the sides of the poor man's head and with a swift move, snapped his neck. The man fell lifelessly to the ground and the Dai Li agents vanished once again.

* * *

**Review please! :)**

**_Oh, and HAPPY EASTER!_ **


	11. Chapter 10: Ashes

**Chapter 10**

The room was dark. Very dark. There weren't any windows and so the only source of light was the little oil lamp hanging from the ceiling. The dancing flames cast shadows on the walls and the only sound to hear was the quiet crackling of the fire. A round table, with five chairs around it, stood in the middle of the room.

Then, footsteps disturbed the silence and five people, three men and two women, entered the room. They were dressed in red and black robes. The same symbol was printed on every robe: A golden phoenix, surrounded by golden flames.

Everyone knew that they couldn't afford to waste more time. They had already lost too much.

They sat down around the round table and a servant came rushing in. And as he started to serve tea, a tall man with brown hair and a dimpled chin started talking.

"We have much to discuss today, so I'd like to start right away," his voice was deep and guttural. "Fire Lord Zuko, Lady Mai, the Avatar and his friends weren't sleeping in the airship at the time of the explosions. They left yesterday morning on the Avatar's bison."

They all kept watching the man, waiting for him to continue. Well, all except one.

"I hope our message arrived that wannabe-leader," one of the women said. Her black eyes flashed in the faint light.

"It has or else he wouldn't have fled with the Avatar," the tall man responded. "Our agents are after the bison, so don't worry. They flew eastbound but I believe he's heading back to the palace by a devious route. If not, well, then he'll be an easy victim for our agents.

"No, the real thing I wanted to talk about is the escape of the Princess Azula."

All people around the table had their eyes locked on the tall man, who smirked. "I believe you've already heard that she's in Ba Sing Se. Rumor has it that the princess has returned to Ba Sing Se once she learned that her brother was going to stay there for a while. She tried to kill him, but he escaped barely with his life. Now she's plotting an attack against King Kuai, who already tripled his guards around the palace."

"Do you think the source is to be trusted? The princess might still be locked up."

"That's what we do not know. I'll send a messenger hawk back to our contact in the Fire Nation. If Princess Azula truly is free, we'll just have to find her! Then, followers of the Phoenix era will come together and then we'll free the Phoenix King!" He balled his hands into fists and grinned, while the others nodded in agreement. All except the woman with black eyes.

She coughed slightly and her black eyes rested on the tall man. "And why do we need the princess?" Her voice was high and slicing.

All four on the table stared at her in disbelief. "Princess Azula is the rightful heir to the throne. Phoenix King Ozai-"

The woman waved a hand. "I think we should get the Phoenix King out of prison first."

"That won't work, woman!" The man with the dimpled chin punched at the table with his fist. "Not only the resistance group wants Phoenix King Ozai back. Thousands of people want Fire Lord Zuko to be gone, but they're keeping quiet because they don't have the guts to join us and we're far too few to attack the Fire Nation now to free the Phoenix King. He is heavily guarded!

"But if we have such a strong leader as Princess Azula, people will look up to us and they'll follow us!"

The woman narrowed her eyes at the man, who held her gaze. "Fine. You're right," she finally admitted. "Then I suggest we start searching for her."

"The only question is … Where is she?"

* * *

Azula coughed and opened her eyes slowly. She blinked and saw the fuzzy shape of the full moon shining in the raven-black sky. As she slowly regained consciousness, the pain also crept its way into her body. Azula groaned and didn't dare to move.

_Where am I? What the hell happened?_

Azula had no idea why her body hurt like that, but she decided to find out. She carefully pushed herself to her elbows. Rubbing her eyes hazily with one hand, she looked around.

It was dark and it took a while for her eyes to get used to the darkness, but because of the faint moonlight she eventually could make out that she was somewhere in a forest. She herself was wrapped in soft blankets, lying on grass. Other sleeping bags lay around a campfire and she saw Mai sleeping peacefully in one. The others were empty, though.

_Great._

Her head throbbed terribly and as she lifted a hand to massage her temples, memories of fire, explosions and pain came crushing down on her.

Azula gasped. How come she was still alive? How come that she was wrapped in blankets, lying on grass in the middle of nowhere?!

Suddenly there was a loud roar coming from behind and Azula gasped and swung around. It was the Avatar's bison.

_Why the hell is the Avatar's sky bison here!?_

Azula was too shocked and too confused to do anything at the moment, so she just stared at the big six-legged animal. It shook its shaggy fur and then lay down, closing its spherical eyes.

"Oh, you're awake." A cold voice said and Azula averted her eyes from the bison. Katara, the annoying waterbender stood in front of her, looking a steady gaze.

Azula instantly narrowed her eyes and tried to stand up, but her body felt too weak to obey her.

"What is all of this! What did you do to me!" She hissed and Katara raised an eyebrow and still stared at Azula with distrust.

"Actually, I saved you from dying," Katara said, arms akimbo, "Yeah, that's what I did. You owe me now."

At this, Azula couldn't do anything else but laugh. "Stop dreaming peasant. I know you hate me, you would never ever try to help me."

"Yes, you're right I really don't think highly of you, but I didn't leave you to die in the woods, because I am a good person compared to you. I'd save everyone whose life is in danger! Even if that person is as bad as you are ..."

Azula rolled her eyes, while Katara continued to babble about nonsense. It seemed like the waterbender was going to choke on her words since she wasn't taking any breaks to catch her breath. The thought alone made Azula chuckle.

"...So let me get something straight," Katara took a deep breath as she bent down to Azula, "I haven't done it for you, I did it for Zuko and if you do anything … the least evil act, I will take you down. **Again.** And this time, I won't be merciful."

The threat didn't bother the princess, but Katara mentioning her defeat at the Day of the Comet, made her incredibly angry.

"If I do, I'll make sure you'll be my first victim you foolish peasant."

"If I were you, I wouldn't say that to me on a full moon and without your fire power," Katara shot back, smirking.

That was enough. Azula couldn't keep her emotions in check anymore. She gritted her teeth and grimaced. Gathering her strength, she lunged forward, ignoring the pain in her leg.

But all Katara did was to take a step back and Azula landed in the dirt in front of the waterbender's feet. The princess' face burned red with anger, shame and humiliation. Her leg hurt her terribly, but right now, that was the least of her problems.

Azula shoved herself to one knee and finally pushed herself from the ground with as much dignity as possible. She was a bit taller than Katara, which made it easier for the princess to try to stare the other girl down. But Katara hold her steady gaze and didn't back down.

"You can glare at me as long as you want to. You know, I used to fear you during the war, but now?" Katara examined her opponent from top to bottom. "Now, I don't _have _to fear you anymore. There's nothing left, which could scare me." Azula could barely resist the desire to spit her in the face, but Katara had already turned away and was walking over to the bison.

Azula still glared daggers at the waterbenders back, but eventually forced herself to calm down as she returned to her sleeping bag. Her terribly aching leg caused her to limp, but Azula was far too angry to care at the moment.

"_There's **nothing **left, which could scare me." _

Katara's words were true. No one feared her anymore. She'd lost her glory and honor and now she was alone. All alone.

* * *

"_**My dear Phoenix King … it's time," **_the alluring voice wasn't more than a whisper in Ozai's ears.

A deceitful smile played on his dry lips as he removed a stone from the prison walls, revealing _the ring. _

He slipped on the ring and closed his eyes, enjoying the sudden wave of power, which rushed through him.

_Ozai laughed out loud. He could feel it! His fire! His strength was coming back! _

_Ozai took a close look at the ring. The symbol, which was carved into the red jewel was now glowing orange with some slightly green shimmer to it. He turned his back to the cell door and made sure no one was peering through its small window. _

_He sighed with pleasure as he felt his spirit merging with the one of the ring. _

_God, how good it felt! _

_He held up his hand and concentrated on generating orange fire in his palm. Once the flames were dancing in his hand, he couldn't hold back a victorious smile. He had his powers back. But he would have to be patient. He would have to wait for the right time to strike.  
_

"_**It's time," **_the magnificent voice repeated. **_"Your children are on their way to _**_Huo Li __**forest. With the Avatar. If you break out now, the Fire Lord won't realize fast enough what has happened here."**_

"You are right," the Phoenix King said, his voice as strong and steady as it has been in his prime of life. He ripped of his dirty shirt, exposing his well-conditioned torso. He'd been training ever since the voice had first spoken to him.

He grabbed two bars of his cage and heated them. As fume arose from his hands, he pulled the bars apart.

Stepping through the recent gap in his cage, he inhaled a lot of air and withdrew both his fists to his sides. Then, both his fists shot forward and he breathed out, releasing massive fire streams. The metal cell door couldn't resist the force of his fiery attack and was taken off its hinges. With a loud _plump _it landed on the cold stone floor.

Ozai smirked once he heard the guards starting to shout and stepped through the smoke, out of his cell.

"H- How did you do that?" Ozai's personal guard said, dropping the bowl of food he was getting for his prisoner.

Ozai smiled cruelly. "You still don't get it, do you? I've told you about a thousand times that I AM THE PHOENIX KING!" Ozai roared the last words, spitting fire out of his mouth, but the guard could only stand there, staring at Ozai with gaping mouth. His legs were shaking and intellectually, he was screaming at his legs to run for his life, but they wouldn't obey him.

"You are the first one I am getting revenge on," the Phoenix King's voice was calm, but forbidding, as he stepped to the shaking guard.

"No, please don't kill me!" The guard whimpered and fell to his knees, sobbing. From out the corner of his eyes, Ozai could see several other guards sprinting towards them, fire already in their hands.

"Stop!" They shouted while they ran. "Surrender now, prisoner, and we'll let you live!" There were five guards, now standing in two rows, all in firebending stances.

Ozai laughed and studied those foolish peasants. He could take them all out within seconds. They didn't stand a chance against his power. But first he was going to dispose of this _thing, _which knelt next to him. The corners of his lips went upwards and with a punch of his fist towards the whimpering guard, a fire bomb exploded in his face. His body was flung back and crashed into the wall. The guard didn't even have time to scream. Ozai turned to the remaining ones and blocked their fire blasts easily with his arms. He smirked at them.

"B-but you c- can't … the Avatar t-took your b-bending!" One of them stammered, eyes wide.

"As you can see, your dear Avatar has failed. But don't worry, I'll make sure he'll never be able to fail you ever again!" While he was still talking, Ozai jumped forward and brought his palms together and raging fire rushed towards the guards. They tried to block it with their own flames, however, Ozai's were much more powerful and the guards were sent flying back.

The dancing flames around Ozai were reflected within his power hungry eyes, which stared the fallen guards down. Two of them were still alive, since most of Ozai's attack has been shielded by the first row. They groaned and looked at the frightening man, their eyes widened with fear and shock.

"I want you to deliver a message, my friends," Ozai simpered as he stroke his beard. He then smirked, enjoying the guard's fear. _Just like in old times, _he thought. _Just like in old times._

"**The Phoenix has risen from the ashes." **

Ozai slowly turned around, to see where he was. It looked like his cell was the only one in the hallway. He was sure that more guards were on their way since the deafening sound couldn't have been overheard. But Ozai didn't care. He stalked away from the injured guards, stepped over the scorched and fuming corpse of the fool and made his way to the prison's exit.

No one could stop him now.

* * *

**So sorry guys it's been 3 weeks :/ School distracted me from writing and to be honest I didn't feel like writing after a whole day of drawing graphs and solving quadratics (maths test D: ). Seriously, when am I going to need that in my life ?! lol  
**

**Anyways don't worry if it takes me a little longer to update! Believe me when I say that I am going to FINISH THIS STORY! Till next time!  
**

Review please! :)


	12. Chapter 11: Silence of Night

**Chapter 11**

* * *

It was a cool, calm night and Azula found herself shivering under her blankets. The full moon was shining brightly and bathed the moist forest soil in a dim light of blue.

_Autumn is already coming,_ Azula thought, _that means my sixteenth birthday can't be far away anymore._

Not that she cared anyway. Birthdays had never been very important to her, but the fact that she'd been locked away for a year incensed her. When the comet arrived, she had been fourteen and now she was almost an adult.

A whole year … Azula could barely remember her time in that institution. She clenched her teeth. She'd been robbed of an entire year of her life!  
And that was when a weird feeling crawled its way into her. Remorse.  
She could have done something at least. But she didn't and now everyone thought she was weak and totally insane. Like she didn't know who she once was.

But … who was she? Princess Azula, firebending master and only person in the world who could wield blue fire? No, she wasn't. Not anymore.

Her teeth chattered and she turned to face the campfire and felt the warmth on her skin. But it felt different this time. Normally, fire felt so … alive. This time it didn't. It was just … fire.  
Azula held out her hand and tried to generate a small blue flame in her palm, but nothing happened.

Why couldn't she bend anymore?!

It hadn't been the Avatar, so why? She repeated that question again and again in her head.

She was so deep in thoughts that she didn't notice Katara until she put a bowl of rice next to Azula.  
"We don't have water anymore, I'm gonna get some later. In the meantime you just have to get along without water," Katara told Azula with narrowed eyes and turned on her heel to stalk back to Appa. Azula noticed her throat was tinder-dry but she ignored the annoying waterbender completely. She still felt ashamed for jumping right in front of that witch's feet. Her cheeks were burning with anger. Oh, how she hated that girl.

**...**

Katara was really worried about her friends. They should have been back by now. Had something happened to them? They just wanted to get some supplies from the nearest village, while Katara was stuck here with Azula. A scowl made its way to her face, when she thought of the princess. She hadn't changed at all! She was still that manipulating, lying and evil girl who had shot lightning at Aang and Zuko! Why did she have to come with them? Katara was sure the princess was eventually going to screw everything up.

But Katara smirked at the thought of Azula jumping into the dirt in front of her feet. Someone had to show her that she wasn't all perfect, right?

Katara sighed and looked over to the curled up girl lying near the campfire. Azula was staring into the dancing flames, depression and longing in her eyes. During the war, Ty Lee often used her chi-blocking techniques on her and Katara knew how it felt to be stripped off her bending. But this had only lasted for an hour or so and Azula had lost her powers. Maybe forever. Somehow, she pitied the princess, but Katara shook her head and banned these feelings from her mind. It was better for all of their safety.

**...**

Azula knew the peasant girl was watching her narrow-eyed, but she didn't care. She was far too busy thinking about the lately happenings.  
Someone tried to kill them all. Azula could vaguely remember what had happened.  
She had been on deck and one of her guards touched a barrel or something... the rest of her memory consisted of fuzzy little pieces about fire, pain and blackness.  
Someone had placed bombs all over the airship's deck. Azula felt confident. The only question was who? And how? It angered her that she didn't have the measure of someone. Especially if it was someone who almost managed to kill her.

She growled with rage at the thought that it had been_ her_, who had saved her life. Of course Azula terribly disliked the fact that she had to be rescued at all, but her of all people?! And now she was stuck with that filthy waterbender, waiting for her dumb brother and the rest of the group.

Minutes passed and Katara continued watching the fallen princess, who still didn't move. The young waterbender sighed and decided she should do something useful instead and so she climbed onto Appa's saddle and picked up their empty water containers. Before she hit the road, she slowly walked over to where Azula was lying.

"I'm going to the nearby stream to get us some fresh water, Azula. Just stay here and do nothing," Katara warned her, but Azula didn't even look at her.

"Did you hear me?" Katara said angrily.

"Of course, Mother." Azula spat the words and didn't avert her eyes from the fire.  
While trying to ignore the princess' teasing words, Katara deliberated if she should wake Mai up, but decided against it. Azula seemed to be lost within her own thoughts and furthermore she wouldn't be able to make an escape due to her injured leg.

Katara shook her head and headed deeper into the forest until she heard the quiet gurgling water of the stream. Katara knelt in front of it and filled the containers with water. The sparkling surface of the stream reflected the bright-shining full moon and Katara closed her eyes.  
She felt so powerful and safe under the moon. She could sense the prickling in her fingers and how the moonlight shone onto her bare skin. Putting her hands in the cool water, she relished how it flowed through her fingers.

_I could really use a relaxing bath right now. _Katara thought to herself.

No, she couldn't leave Azula alone for too long. Maybe she would try to do something nasty. Who knew?

But Katara remained still, enjoying the pleasant silence and the safe feeling the moon gave her.  
She didn't notice the three shadows silently creeping closer to her until it was too late.

* * *

Azula's head was throbbing terribly and her leg pained as well. The more she thought about questions she couldn't find answers to, the worse the pain got.

She sighed and turned away from the warm fire, lying flat on her back and staring up to the full moon. What she would give to get her fire back!

"Stop thinking about all this nonsense. It's annoying and you're only wasting your time," a voice came from behind.

Azula groaned, closed her eyes and pulled the blanket over her head, trying to ignore the voice.

"I never expected you to be such a coward. Too afraid to look at me?"

"What do you want, huh?! All you do is mock me and try to manipulate me! And you're not even real!" Azula screamed as she threw the blanket away and sat up, staring at Perfect Azula with wild eyes.

But all the Other did was laugh. "I am not real you say? I'm part of you, you idiot. The better part. The strong one. I am trying to get you out of this mess. You're weak. You need someone to guide you."

"I don't need anyone's help! And I am everything but weak!"

"Oh please," Perfect Azula said, rolling her eyes, "look around and tell me what you see." She bent down and stared into Azula's orbs, who felt herself shiver at those cold and manipulative golden eyes. Her own eyes.  
"You needed that filthy watertribe girl to rescue and heal you," the Other continued. "You would be dead if it weren't for her. How pathetic."

Azula was furious, but she couldn't find the right words to throw back at the she-devil.

"Ah, I still can't believe how far you've fallen.." Perfect Azula said, shaking her head in faked sadness.

"JUST LET ME BE!"

The Other put her index finger to her full red lips. "Shh, you don't want to wake up your knife-throwing friend, do you?" She motioned to Mai, who was shifting in her sleep. "Believe it or not, I am here to help you."

"Go. To. Hell," was all Azula brought out through clenched teeth.

Her opponent just laughed. "C'mon don't act like you don't want to be the old you again."

"Do you really think that is my goal?" Azula scoffed. "I'm not following anyone's orders anymore!"

"Oh, really? Don't be ridiculous."

"And I am getting myself out of this mess, you'll see. But I'm doing it on my own. I'm not doing it for you or anyone else!" Azula was almost screaming again.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" The Other folded her arms, smiling cruelly. When she didn't move, Perfect Azula giggled."Oh well, I already expected something like that. What a pity."

"Whatever! After you find your mother, Zuko is going to lock you up anyway."

Azula gritted her teeth. This thing is not real!, she told herself. She wouldn't back down. She couldn't … she …

"Then he'll spend the rest of his life happily with Ursa..."

Azula balled her hands to fists, her nails cutting into the tender flesh of her palms. It hurt, but Azula didn't care.

"...while you rot in a foul cell."

That was too much for Azula. Why was this demon tormenting her? She couldn't hear another word from that monster.  
Azula squinted and pressed her hands to her ears. She didn't even notice that Mai slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes, watching Azula from behind.

"Who are you talking to?" Mai watched her former friend, who had pulled her head and knees to her chest as she rocked back and forth.

"J-just stop," Azula muttered and Mai raised a brow in mild confusion. She slowly reached out a hand to touch the quivering girl on the shoulder, who flinched and turned around sharply.

"No," Azula gasped as she saw Mai, "Not you again! Stay away from me!"  
The fear was evident in the princess' eyes and Mai held up both her hands and tried to calm her down. "Azula what are you talking a-"

"Why do you need to pop up every time I don't want to see you? Why do you keep tormenting me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Mai exclaimed, suddenly feeling angry. Was this another game of hers? Was Azula trying to trick her? "What are you up to, huh? Stop your act!"

"Stop trying to lecture me! No matter what I do, you'll only see me as a monster!"

"Monster?" Mai frowned. She was sure she'd never said anything like that to Azula. "But Azula, I -"

"STOP! I've had enough of it! I can't take it anymore!" Azula backed away hectically to Mai's complete shock. "You hate me, I hate you! That's fine by me, now go away!"

"You're talking nonsense, Azula." She didn't hate Azula. She maybe didn't like her … but hate? No. "I don't hate y -"

"LIAR!"

This was going too far. It didn't seem like Azula was acting all of this. She was actually having a panic attack and Mai had no idea how to deal with the situation. She was even more surprised when Azula struggled into a standing position, and started limping away.

"Azula, wait!" She exclaimed, feeling helpless.

Mai attempted to follow her, but Azula grabbed a fistful of dirt and whirled around, throwing it in her face. It got into her eyes and her mouth. Suddenly blinded, Mai tripped over something and fell. She felt the dirt on her tongue and she gagged and spit out as much as possible. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times, trying to regain orientation.

When she rose, Azula was gone.

* * *

**Did you notice any differences between this chapter and the old ones? ^.^**

**'Cause there are! A million thanks to _icesong180_, my editor, who was so kind to point out and correct my mistakes in this chapter! You're amazing!**

**Also, a few people asked me: " Is Azula going to get her firebending back?" I cannot tell you now, of course, but I promise that you're going to get an answer in this story.  
**

**I'd love to get a few reviews right now! ;) **


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